Immunotherapeutic collaboration will advance efforts to develop new treatment options for patients with liver and pancreatic tumors
PROVIDENCE, R.I., April 12, 2022 – TriSalus Life Sciences®, an immunotherapy company on a mission to extend and improve the lives of patients living with liver and pancreatic tumors, today announced a strategic collaboration with Lifespan, a health system, affiliated with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
Over the next two years, TriSalus will develop and run a new on-campus laboratory to launch immunotherapeutic research that leverages Lifespan’s clinical and research infrastructure, including its state-of-the-art vivarium. TriSalus’ pre-clinical team, supported by the company’s Cranston, Rhode Island-based clinical team, will lead this research to further develop TriSalus’ therapeutic platform and advance medical knowledge of the barriers that can limit the effectiveness of immuno-oncology treatments for patients with liver and pancreatic tumors. The lab will also be used to support clinical trials to test this novel immunotherapy approach for patients with liver and pancreas tumors.
“Supporting research with the potential to transform patient care is a core tenet of our focus to accelerate progress as Rhode Island’s leading cancer research institution,” said Michael Henderson, JD, MS, LLM, vice president for research and chief research officer, Lifespan. “Partnering with local industry leaders like TriSalus offers an ideal opportunity to not only better understand the challenges facing patients with liver and pancreatic tumors, but also the possibility to facilitate new treatment options.”
While immunotherapy has yielded significant progress in cancer treatment, key barriers such as intratumoral pressure and tumor-induced immunosuppression limit the effectiveness of these treatments for patients with liver and pancreatic tumors.
“Due to the unique environment of their tumors, many patients with liver and pancreatic tumors are unable to fully benefit from traditional delivery of immunotherapy,” said William G. Cioffi, MD, FACS, surgeon-in-chief, The Miriam and Rhode Island Hospitals, and J. Murray Beardsley Professor and chairman of the department of surgery at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. “Our clinicians are eager to support research like TriSalus’ that has the potential to advance innovative solutions to improve outcomes for patients living with these hard-to-treat cancers.”
TriSalus’ platform seeks to address treatment challenges for liver and pancreatic tumors by integrating immunotherapy with innovative drug delivery technology. The company is studying the ability of SD-101, a potentially first-in-class, investigative toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist, to reactivate the immune system within the liver and pancreas and enable more durable responses to other immunotherapeutics, such as checkpoint inhibitors. The platform utilizes TriSalus’ proprietary Pressure-Enabled Drug DeliveryÔ (PEDDÔ) method of administration, which modulates pressure and flow within blood vessels to overcome intratumoral pressure and ultimately improve the amount of therapy delivered to the tumor.
“Building an on-site research presence at Lifespan equips us to continue clinical and pre-clinical studies to validate that our tailored, organ-specific treatment approaches may allow patients living with liver and pancreatic tumors to respond more reliably to immunotherapy,” said Steven C. Katz, MD, FACS, TriSalus Chief Medical Officer.
The Lifespan collaboration also extends TriSalus’ ongoing work with leading cancer research centers to bring new treatments to patients living with liver and pancreatic tumors. For example, the first Pressure Enabled Regional Immuno-Oncology study, PERIO™-01 (NCT04935229), is underway and evaluating the efficacy of SD-101 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in patients with uveal melanoma with liver metastases. PERIO™-02 (NCT05220722), recently opened for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. A separate trial for locally advanced pancreatic ductal carcinoma is also in development. Learn more at trisaluslifesci.com and periotrial.com.
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About TriSalus Life Sciences
TriSalus Life Sciences is an immunotherapy company on a mission to extend and improve the lives of patients living with liver and pancreatic tumors. By integrating an immunotherapeutic with innovative drug delivery technologies, TriSalus’ platform seeks to address two significant barriers that limit the effectiveness of current treatments for liver and pancreatic tumors: immunosuppression and high intratumoral pressure.
The company is studying the ability of SD-101, a potentially first-in-class, investigative TLR9 agonist, to reactivate the immune system within the liver and pancreas to enable more durable responses to other immunotherapeutics (e.g., checkpoint inhibitors) and improve patient outcomes. The platform, which leverages TriSalus’ proprietary Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery™ (PEDD™) method of administration, modulates pressure and flow within blood vessels to improve the amount of therapy delivered to the tumor. While meaningful progress in these difficult-to-treat diseases will not be easy, TriSalus is focused on advancing science and technological innovation to transform outcomes for patients. To learn more, visit www.trisaluslifesci.com and follow us on Twitter @TriSalusLifeSci and LinkedIn.
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