Novocure Announces 20 Presentations On Tumor Treating Fields, Highlighting Preclinical Effects in Pancreatic Cancer and Immune Effects, at American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024

Novocure (NASDAQ: NVCR) today announced 20 presentations on Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) therapy will be delivered at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024, to be held April 5 to 10 in San Diego.

The presentations, describing preclinical investigations, include new insights on how TTFields therapy can potentially enhance the immune system’s ability to combat cancer cells and on TTFields therapy’s effects and mechanisms in pancreatic cancer.

“The research we and our collaborators are presenting at the AACR Annual Meeting underscores the potential of Tumor Treating Fields therapy in treating various solid tumor types,” said Moshe Giladi, Ph.D., Novocure’s Chief Science Officer. “We continually explore the science of TTFields therapy to improve our product and make a difference in the lives of patients with cancer, and we are eager to discuss some of our latest insights with leading cancer investigators.”

Highlights include:

• A preclinical study in a murine model of pancreatic cancer showing that TTFields applied concurrently with standard chemotherapy led to significantly enhanced therapeutic effects. When used alongside gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel (Gem/NabP), TTFields significantly reduced tumor growth compared to the control group, and a complete regression of tumors was observed in a number of animals. This is a treatment regimen similar to the PANOVA-3 clinical trial examining the efficacy of TTFields in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

• A preclinical study demonstrating a novel immunomodulatory role for TTFields by promoting in vitro pro-inflammatory polarization of macrophages. Macrophages exposed to TTFields showed an increase in markers and chemicals that indicate a shift towards a pro-inflammatory, tumor-fighting mode. The study suggests TTFields can potentially modulate macrophages to better attack cancer cells by pushing them toward a state more hostile to tumors.

• An in vitro study suggesting concomitant application of TTFields and PARP inhibitors in BRCA wild type pancreatic cancer cells leads to improvement over monotherapy. Applied individually, both PARP inhibitors and TTFields killed cancer cells, stopped them from multiplying, and triggered apoptosis. These effects were amplified when TTFields and PARP inhibitors were applied together. These findings contribute to existing data suggesting that TTFields induce a state of BRCAness in cancer cells.

Presentations from Novocure-sponsored and partner programs include: