Bernard Fox: Earle A. Chiles Research Institute’s tripling of response rates for patients with head and neck cancer

Bernard Fox, Co-Founder, President and CEO of UbiVac, shared a post on LinkedIn by Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, adding:

“In 2024 the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute had many accomplishments.

For me, hands-down, the biggest is our tripling of response rates for patients with head and neck cancer (HNSCC).  The trial, led by Dr. Rom Leidner, treated 18 patients and has the best response rate in the world for this disease.

This trial happened in Portland because Dr. Walter Urba built and nurtured a bench-to-bedside ‘Translational Center of Excellence’ at the Providence Cancer Institute.

While the drug was developed for all solid cancers, it was first tested as combination immunotherapy in HNSCC because of 2 people. First, Dr. Bryan Bell, a head and neck cancer surgeon, who influenced me over the last 15 years that we needed to work on this debilitating disease and provided samples of patient’s tumors for my lab to study.

Second, Dr. Rom Leidner, an Immunotherapist and medical oncologist, who treats patients with HNSCC and encouraged us to do the trial in this disease. The trial tested a drug invented and produced in Portland by a Providence Cancer Institute spin-out, UbiVac. That trial was funded by Incyte.

In studying these patients we gained insights from multiplex Immunofluoresence (mIF), molecular studies (scRNAseq), and cancer’s Dark Matter which I believe may allow us to further increase the response rate for many cancer types, with the ultimate goal being to finish cancer.

Those data were presented at AACR2024 and SITC2024. While these early data need to be confirmed in additional patients, all of us at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, and UbiVac look forward to 2025 with renewed optimism that good science coupled with AI will allow us to continue making progress and benefitting more patients with cancer in the coming year.

Thank you to all of the patients, their families, nurses, doctors, scientists, technicians, philanthropists, investors, legal, and pharma partners for believing in us and supporting this high-risk / high-reward effort.”

Quoting Earle A. Chiles Research Institute’s post:

“As we prepare to start a new year, we reflect on our commitment to advancing cancer care and research for the benefit of our patients and communities.

Some of the year’s highlights include expanding cancer care in Oregon with new surgical oncology clinics at Providence Portland and Providence St. Vincent, opening a new research lab at Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, and strengthening our community impact by collaborating with local partner organizations for cancer screenings, educational talks and awareness events.

Looking back, there’s much to celebrate – and much more to look forward to in the new year.

Read about our year.”

“Promising Phase Ib Data for UbiVac’s DPV-001 in Combination Immunotherapy for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Cancer”

Author: Bernard Fox

Bernard Fox is the Co-Founder, President, and CEO of UbiVac. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, at the Knight Cancer Institute.

He is also a Member of Board of Directors at Oregon Bioscience Association. In 2012, Dr. Fox received the Harder Family Endowed Chair for Cancer Research in recognition of his efforts in translational cancer therapy.