Scancell Holdings PLC (AIM:SCLP, OTC:SCNLF) said it recruited the first patient to its phase II cancer clinical trial.
Researchers at Churchill Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals Trust, will use the company’s SCIB1 immunotherapy in combination with established checkpoint inhibitor drug Keydtruda to treat a person with advanced melanoma.
The phase II study is designed to assess whether the addition of SCIB1 treatment to the Merck product will result in improved patient outcomes.
A phase I/II study showed that Scancell’s discovery was superior to the standard of care, which involves surgically removing the melanoma.
Poulam Patel, Professor of Clinical Oncology at the University of Nottingham, is the chief investigator.
The study has sites at Nottingham and Oxford as well as the Velindre and Mount Vernon hospitals, which are actively screening subjects. Additional centres are due to come online in the coming months, Scancell said.
The company’s chief executive, Professor Lindy Durrant, said: "We are delighted to have started our SCIB1 phase II trial in the UK as we believe that SCIB1 administration in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor such as pembrolizumab [Keytruda] has the potential to offer greater efficacy than when either agent is used alone."