“MSS-CRC is a cold tumor that is typically not responsive to immunotherapy, especially in MSS-CRC patients with liver metastases representing about 70% of all CRC patients,” said CRC expert and presenting author, Dr. Michael Overman. “The data we will present at SITC, are encouraging and address this non-immune responsive subset of CRC. Adding COM701 to nivolumab resulted in a response rate of 9% in 22 MSS-CRC patients with two partial responses occurring in 17 patients with liver metastases. This stands in contrast to other novel immunotherapy combinations where responses in MSS-CRC patients with liver metastases have been extremely rare to non-existent. I was particularly excited to see that the responses were supported by robust translational data, clearly showing immune activation that reflects the mechanism of action from the addition of COM701 to nivolumab. While the numbers of patients were small, the data are encouraging and warrant further evaluation. I look forward to investigating COM701 and an anti-PD-1 in triple combination with Compugen’s anti-TIGIT, COM902 in a similar patient population.”
