The first patient has been treated in a clinical trial that is testing a pioneering virus technology – which originated at Cardiff University – that infects cancer cells, producing an anti-tumour drug from inside the tumour cells.
Accession Therapeutics' ATTEST trial is a first-in-human Phase 1 trial in solid tumour patients, testing TROCEPT-01 (also known as ATTR-01). The trial is being delivered by Velindre University NHS Trust and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
The ATTEST trial is recruiting into leading UK clinical sites – including Cardiff – with plans to extend to Spain. Professor Adel Samson at Leeds University Hospital is the Chief Investigator of the study.
Delivery of the trial in Cardiff is being aided by the Cardiff Cancer Research Partnership – a collaboration which aims to improve and coordinate cancer research in Wales, increase patient access to new clinical trials, and accelerate the development of new treatments. The technology behind TROCEPT-01 was originally developed by scientists in Professor Alan Parker's lab at Cardiff University, before being licensed out to Accession Therapeutics Ltd in 2021. Accession has since progressed the programme through development and into the clinic. TROCEPT-01 uses a viral-based approach, precisely engineered to spare healthy tissue and only target the tumour and metastatic lesions.
The new therapy provides a dual-therapeutic effect, by first recognising and infecting only cancer cells, making more copies of itself, causing the infected cancer cells to burst. Secondly, the virus delivers a gene into cancer cells that encodes for a checkpoint inhibitor – a form of immunotherapy that blocks proteins on immune cells. This turns the cancer cells into factories producing the anti-tumour drug and triggering a powerful and precise immune response to act on the tumour.
It's wonderful to see an invention made at Cardiff University progress into a clinical trial and for one of these sites to be in Cardiff.
Professor Alan Parker, Professor of Translational Virology at Cardiff University and Chief Scientific Officer with Accession Therapeutics, said: "TROCEPT-01 has been designed to have minimal activity in healthy tissues, with maximal activity in the tumour. This potent and highly localised activity gives promise in many cancers of unmet clinical needs, and the ATTEST trial includes hard-to-treat cancers such as pancreatic, lung, bladder, head and neck, endometrial and cholangiocarcinomas."
Dr Magda Meissner, Velindre Cancer Service and a Principal Investigator of the ATTEST trial at the Cardiff site, said: "Being part of the ATTEST trial marks an exciting milestone for our team and for cancer research in Wales. This study brings together academic innovation and clinical expertise as we test the delivery of a new class of precision oncolytic therapy directly to patients. We are proud that Cardiff is involved in these first in-human trials and helping to translate years of laboratory research into potential new treatment options for people with advanced cancers."
Claire Lang, Senior Research Nurse Manager, Cardiff Cancer Research Partnership, said: "I will be working with the patients in the Cardiff site, to administer the treatment."
This is a fantastic example of 'bench to bedside' cancer research in Wales - developing research from Cardiff University laboratories into a new class of drug, and delivering it to NHS patients for the first time at UHW and Velindre via this trial.
David Fluck, Executive Medical Director at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: "Research gives an opportunity to discover new treatments and positively impact the lives of people in Cardiff, Wales, and across the world.
"It's exciting to see my colleagues making such an impact and I look forward to hearing more about this trial, and other projects taking place in at the Cardiff Cancer Research Partnership, and across our Health Board area. I'm grateful to Velindre and Cardiff University for supporting us with this important work."
Bent Jakobsen, CEO of Accession Therapeutics, said: "Dosing the first patient in our TROCEPT-01 clinical trial has been a pivotal moment for Accession Therapeutics and a testament to the dedication of our team and collaborators. In TROCEPT, we have created a unique, highly versatile platform that enables novel drugs to be made inside cancer cells. The platform gives us multiple opportunities to generate valuable products to transform outcomes for cancer patients. TROCEPT-01 (ATTR-01) has the potential to expand the indications where checkpoint inhibitors have been successful."
The Cardiff Cancer Research Partnership is a priority of the newly-launched Cardiff Health Partners - a collaboration between Cardiff University, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Velindre University NHS Trust to align discovery science, healthcare, education, and industry partnerships to accelerate innovation into practice, improve health and equity, and drive inclusive economic growth and regeneration.
