Tocagen Inc (TOCA)

[gr8db8]

However, Toca 511 and 5-FC treatment significantly
reduced the Mo-MDSC population.
Treatment with 5-FU has been shown to induce
selective apoptosis of MDSCs, thereby
decreasing the burden of these cells in the
murine spleen and tumor environment,
but without depleting host T cells, natural
killer (NK) cells, dendritic cells, or B cells, and
promoted T cell-dependent anti-tumor responses.20
Therefore, the elimination of MDSCs
represents a promising approach in cancer therapy.
Future studies are needed to determine
suppressive activities of different subsets of MDSCs that could
improve the development of novel interventions for cancer treatment
in colorectal metastases.

In conclusion, our data from disease-relevant in vivo tumor models
suggest that Toca 511 and 5-FC is safe, efficacious, and represents a
novel tumoricidal and immunotherapeutic approach for the treatment
of liver and brain metastases for patients with mCRC. Importantly,
this work demonstrates that Toca 511 in conjunction with
5-FC promotes both direct killing of tumor cells by local production
of 5-FU and induction of a local and systemic immunotherapeutic
response, resulting in long-term survival by selectively depleting a
highly immunosuppressive population of cells, MDSCs. We believe
that this platform may provide improved treatment outcomes for
individuals with mCRC when translated into clinical trials
(NCT02576665).

http://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/oncolytics/pdf/S2372-7705(17)30048-7.pdf