Corvus Pharmaceuticals Announces New Data Highlighting Potential of Ciforadenant to Overcome Immunotherapy Resistance in Metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer

Data presented in an oral session at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 39th Annual Meeting, where it was selected as a top 100 abstract

BURLINGAME, Calif., Nov. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRVS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced new data highlighting the potential of ciforadenant, the Company’s adenosine A2A receptor antagonist, to overcome resistance to anti-PD1 immunotherapy in the treatment of metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

The data were presented today in an oral session at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 39th Annual Meeting by Aram Lyu, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco and Parker Scholar at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Lyu’s abstract, titled “Identification and therapeutic target of myeloid-mediated mechanisms of immunotherapy resistance in prostate cancer” was selected as a Top 100 abstract by SITC.

“These studies reveal important details on the role of the adenosine pathway on the immunobiology of mCRPC, including the importance of myeloid cells and the adenosine gene signature,” said Richard A. Miller, M.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Corvus. “The mechanism is consistent with and builds on results from our clinical trials in renal cell cancer and prostate cancer, along with the potential for the adenosine gene signature to select patients most likely to respond. This could be an important advancement for patients with tumors that are resistant to checkpoint inhibitors, and is supportive of our ongoing clinical trial of ciforadenant in combination with ipilimumab and nivolumab in front line renal cell cancer.”

SITC Oral Presentation Overview and Key Data
Previous studies have shown that mCRPC is resistant to therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. While tumor associated macrophages are known to contribute to immunosuppression with the tumor microenvironment, this study identified SPP1+ myeloid cells as a potential critical mediator of resistance to immunotherapy. The team led by Lawrence Fong, M.D. used single cell RNA expression profiling of tumor biopsies to measure levels of these cells in patients with early localized or metastatic hormone responsive prostate cancer compared to patients with mCRPC. The results showed that SPP1+ macrophages were more prevalent as cancer progresses to mCRPC patients.