Pseudovax: A New Vaccine Trial for PMP Receives Approval to Begin

We are thrilled to share an important milestone for patients with pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). Dr. Kjersti Flatmark and her team at Oslo University Hospital have received approval from Norwegian regulatory authorities to begin a clinical trial of Pseudovax, a vaccine being developed as a potential new treatment for PMP.

About the Pseudovax PMP vaccine trial

Many PMP tumors carry a mutation in a gene called GNAS. Pseudovax is a peptide vaccine designed to train the patient’s own immune system to recognize this mutated protein and attack the cancer cells that carry it. In the trial, the vaccine is being studied together with an immunotherapy drug (a PD-1 inhibitor), with the goal of strengthening the immune response.

The trial is intended for patients with PMP whose disease has come back after surgery or cannot be removed with surgery – a group for whom effective treatment options are currently very limited. This is a small, early-stage, first-in-human study focused first on safety and on measuring how the immune system responds.

An ACPMP-funded milestone

This work is funded, in part, by an ACPMP Research Foundation Catalyst Research Grant awarded to Dr. Flatmark. Because many promising treatments face a long road before they can be tested in people, this grant was structured so that funding would be released once regulatory approval to begin the trial was obtained – a milestone the team has now achieved.

We are grateful to our donors for making this support possible, and to Dr. Flatmark and her team for years of diligent, dedicated work. Learn more about the research grants ACPMP has awarded.

Learn more

The scientific rationale for this vaccine was published in 2021: Flatmark K, et al. Peptide vaccine targeting mutated GNAS: a potential novel treatment for pseudomyxoma peritonei. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. 2021;9(10):e003109. Read the article.

Visit ACPMP’s Clinical Trials Database to explore trials for appendix cancer and PMP.

This summary is for general information only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your care team about what this research may mean for you.