Targovax has built on the previous immune activation and anti-tumor findings and showed that the combination of ONCOS-102 and Keytruda can generate systemic responses that reduce the size of non-injected lesions, i.e. abscopal anti-tumor effect. This work was performed in a humanized melanoma mouse model with tumors inoculated dorsally on both sides of the animals. After the tumors were established, ONCOS-102 was injected directly into the tumor on one side only, followed by systemic treatment with Keytruda. By Day 40, tumors on the non-injected side of the animals had shrunk by an average of 70%.

Peptide-based neoantigencancer vaccines activate cancer specific T – cell immune-responses. Mutant RAS proteins are neoantigen and drivers for development of cancer. RAS mutations are exclusively found in cancer cells and are therefore cancer specific targets for attacking cancer immunologically.