Lurie Children’s leads DIPG clinical trial

In 2022, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago initiated a phase I clinical trial for a novel neo-antigen heat shock protein created with the help of Agenus Inc to target DIPG tumors. Neuro-oncologist Dr. Ashley Plant-Fox is the Principal Investigator and overseeing the trial at three additional sites outside of Lurie Children’s – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC), and Alberta Children’s Hospital in Canada.  

The hope is that this vaccine for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and diffuse midline glioma (DMG) will stimulate a tumor-directed immune response and cytotoxic killing of DIPG/DMG tumor cells. Vaccines use the body’s own immune system to target specific tumor antigens or markers.  

Unfortunately, there are no standard-of-care therapies for DIPG and survival is <1% at 5 years. Clinical trials offer families the chance to try novel therapies directed at DIPG tumors. Although phase I clinical trials are intended to assess the pediatric safety and tolerability of these new therapies, they may also offer the potential for efficacy. Patients who have newly diagnosed DIPG or DMG who have completed radiation therapy may be eligible for the study.  

At Lurie Children’s, three young patients have so received the vaccine so far, including Amayah Cabarris, who turns 13 in January. Amayah’s family was referred by a hospital close to their home in Indianapolis to Lurie Children’s for the clinical trial. Initially, the family was hesitant to participate in a trial, but Amayah’s father, Willie, said when he learned more about how clinical trials work and the focus of this vaccine, they decided to pursue it. Amayah received her first dose of the rHSC-DIPGVax in November. 

“Being part of the clinical trial has helped us with coping with the situation and better understanding what our lives could look like a month, or a couple of months from now,” Willie said, adding he attributes the vaccine in part to Amayah’s improvement in vision and walking along shorter and fewer headaches during the last month. Please note: the efficacy of this vaccine is under investigation and is not yet proven.  

Learn more here: rHSC-DIPGVax Plus Checkpoint Blockade for the Treatment of Newly Diagnosed DIPG and DMG - ClinicalTrials.gov