AlloVax™ is a new product under development that combines AlloStim™ with a vaccine formulation containing chaperone proteins (also known as heat shock proteins) isolated from a sample of a patient’s cancer. This product is applicable to patients with hematological (blood) cancers that have been recommended for first line chemotherapy/radiation treatment to induce remission. A high percentage of patients can be induced into remission with first line chemotherapy/radiation, but almost all patients eventually have a recurrence of the cancer. There is no curative therapy for patients that have a recurrence of a blood cancer except for allogeneic bone marrow/stem cell transplant (BMT) procedures. However, the high toxicity associated with the procedure, requirements for a matched tissue donor and the often lethal side effects limit the clinical application.

AlloVax™ is individualized anti-cancer vaccine that is designed to educate the immune system during the period of cancer remission to prevent the tumor from recurring. Chaperone proteins isolated from cancer cells have been shown to carry hidden tumor antigens that can be used to educate the immune system to identify and kill the cancer cells from which they were derived. Immunovative has purchased the exclusive rights to a patented process developed by Dr. Emmanual Katsanis and scientists at the University of Arizona to purify these chaperone proteins from a small sample of tumor tissue. (See US patent no. 6,875,849).

More information on this technique can be learned by clicking on the following link:

Chaparone-rich lysates with embedded proteins

Ovarian pre-clinical

The AlloVax™ treatment protocol involves first removing a sample of the cancer cells from the patient prior to chemotherapy/radiation therapy. After the patient is in remission, the patient receives intradermal injections of AlloStim™ which are rejected by the patient immune system making the patient immune to the AlloStim™ cells. The cancer sample obtained prior to chemotherapy/radiation treatment is then processed in the laboratory to isolate the chaperone proteins containing the unique tumor antigens. The chaperone protein sample is then combined with AlloStim™ and injected intradermally. In this setting, AlloStim™ acts as an adjuvant for the chaperone protein vaccine formulation. This causes an immune response to reject the AlloStim™ and an immune response against the unique tumor antigens carried by the chaperone proteins. The combination of these immune responses serves to educate the immune system that the tumor antigens are a danger to the body. In this manner, if the tumor recurs the immune system is primed to destroy the tumor without any further treatment in order to keep the patient in remission.

Clicking the see how it works button below will take you to an animation that shows how our AlloVax™ product works.