Geron Publishes Phase I/II Telomerase Vaccine Study Results

Geron has published results of a completed Phase I/II clinical trial of its telomerase therapeutic vaccine administered to patients with metastatic prostate cancer at Duke University Medical Center.

Senior author, Johannes Vieweg, and colleagues from Duke published the results in the Journal of Immunology. The results show that the vaccination protocol successfully generated telomerase-specific T-cell responses in 19 of 20 subjects.

The vaccine was well-tolerated with no major treatment-related toxicities. Peak immune responses to vaccination were remarkably high with 1 percent to 2 percent of circulating CD8+ T-cells demonstrating antitelomerase specificity. Vaccination was associated with a significant increase in PSA doubling time and clearance of circulating tumor cells.