Marker combinations for predicting response to Vx-001

Abstract

The present invention relates to the use of an antitumor vaccine composed of two 9-amino acid peptides - the naturally occurring cryptic peptide TERT572 (RLFFYRKSV, SEQ ID NO: 1) expressed by tumor cells and its optimized variant TERT572Y (YLFFYRKSV, SEQ ID NO: 2) - to treat tumors expressing telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in HLA-A*0201 patients with normal gamma glutamine transferase (gGT) levels and / or normal lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] TECHNICAL FIELD TO WHICH THEINVENTION BELONGS The present invention relates to the field of anti-cancer immunotherapy, more specifically to the field of anti-tumor vaccination. [Background technology]

[0002] Technology background The general condition of a patient suffering from cancer is evaluated by routine blood tests including the levels of LDH glutamine (lactate dehydrogenase), gGT (gamma glutamine transferase), ALP (alkaline phosphatase), markers of liver function and inflammation, and / or blood counts allowing the determination of absolute numbers, the ratio between neutrophils and lymphocytes, and the platelet count. These constants are known to be prognostic markers in patients suffering from cancer, with patients with a worsening general condition having a worse prognosis for life. It has also been shown that this can affect the response to certain treatments, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors, a recently developed agent that has revolutionized the management of certain cancers (Ferrucci et al., Annals Oncol. 2016).

[0003] Anti-cancer immunotherapy is provided to stimulate the recognition by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) of tumor antigen-derived peptides presented on the tumor cell surface by human leukocyte antigen class I (HLA-I). Peptides targeted by CTLs can be dominant or cryptic according to their affinity for HLA molecules. Tumor-associated antigens (TAA), in contrast to neoantigens, which are tumor-specific and most frequently patient-specific, are frequently expressed by both tumor cells and normal tissues. TAAs, in contrast to neoantigens, have the advantage of being expressed by a great many tumors, but the disadvantage of being subject to tolerance mechanisms that prevent autoimmunity (i.e., recognition of self-antigens by an individual's immune system).

[0004] Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), an enzyme involved in the immortalization of tumor cells, is a TAA-type antigen expressed by a large number of tumors (85% of tumors). To circumvent the immune system tolerance problem associated with TAA, we provided a vaccine (Vx-001) targeting a cryptic peptide of TERT, i.e., a TERT peptide that has low affinity for the HLA-A*0201 molecule (the most frequently expressed CMH-I molecule in humans) and forms an unstable peptide / HLA-I complex (Tourdot S. et al., 2000; Menez-Jamet J. et al., 2016). Given the strong correlation between affinity for HLA-I and immunogenicity, this cryptic peptide is not naturally immunogenic. This cryptic peptide has been optimized to enhance immunogenicity for use as an anti-cancer vaccine.

[0005] Thus, Vx-001 is an antitumor therapeutic vaccine composed of two peptides of 9 amino acids; the native cryptic peptide TERT572 (RLFFYRKSV, SEQ ID NO: 1) expressed by tumor cells and its optimized variant TERT572Y (YLFFYRKSV, SEQ ID NO: 2). These two peptides are administered separately, each with the adjuvant Montanide ISA51 VG (a mixture of highly refined mineral oil (Drakeol 6VR) and surfactant (mannide monooleate)). The immunogenicity-optimized peptide TERT572Y is used in the first two vaccinations to induce a strong immune response. The native peptide TERT572 is administered in a subsequent vaccination step to select, among all T lymphocytes stimulated by TERT572Y, those with the highest specificity for the native TERT572 present on the surface of tumor cells associated with HLA-A*0201.

[0006] Vx-001 was recently tested in patients with metastatic or recurrent stage I-III NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) in a randomized Phase IIb clinical trial (Vx-001-201). The vaccine protocol in this trial included six vaccinations at 3-week intervals (two vaccinations with TERT572Y followed by four vaccinations with TERT572), followed by booster vaccinations (with TERT572) every 12 weeks until disease progression (Georgoulias et al., Clin Lung Cancer, 2013). The patients had tumors that contained expressed HLA-A*0201 and expressed TERT. The primary objective of this study was to follow the overall survival rate. The results of this study were not entirely satisfactory. However, Vx-001 showed significant efficacy in certain patients. Therefore, we investigated whether certain blood constants could be associated with clinical response or lack of response to this vaccine. This study stratified patients and identified categories of patients in whom Vx-001 vaccination proved to be statistically beneficial. Summary of the Invention [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] Summary of the Invention The inventors have shown that the antitumor vaccine Vx-001 provides a statistically significant benefit to patients with normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH, and that patients with normal levels of gGT and LDH respond particularly well to this treatment. More detailed stratification showed that male patients with non-squamous tumors respond particularly well to the treatment.

[0008] Thus, the present invention relates to the use of Vx-001 in a method for treating tumors expressing telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in HLA-A*0201 patients with normal levels of gamma glutamine transferase (gGT) and / or normal levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), preferably in male patients with non-squamous tumors. The present invention also relates to an in vitro method for determining whether an HLA-A*0201 patient suffering from a TERT-expressing tumor is likely to respond favorably to Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccination, the method comprising measuring gGT and LDH levels of the patient, the patient being likely to respond favorably to Vx-001 if at least one of said levels is normal. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] Figure 1: OS and TTF in patients with normal LDH serum levels. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Diagram 2] Figure 2: OS and TTF in patients with normal gGT serum levels. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Diagram 3] Figure 3: Clinical responses in patients with normal ALP serum levels. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Figure 4] Figure 4: Clinical response to Vx-001 and absolute neutrophil counts. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Diagram 5] Figure 5: Clinical response to Vx-001 and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. Thick grey curve: patients receiving Vx-001; thin black curve: patients receiving placebo. [Figure 6] Figure 6: Clinical response and platelet counts to Vx-001. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Figure 7] Figure 7: OS and TTF in patients with normal LDH and gGT serum levels. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Figure 8]Figure 8: Survival analysis of the subgroup of patients with normal LDH and gGT serum levels. NSQ: non-squamous tumors. SQ: squamous tumors. OR: objective response to chemotherapy. SD: stable disease. ECOG: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group functional index. [Figure 9] Figure 9: TTF (time to treatment failure) analysis of patients with normal LDH and gGT serum levels. NSQ: non-squamous tumors. SQ: squamous tumors. OR: objective response to chemotherapy. SD: stable disease. ECOG: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group functional index. [Figure 10] Figure 10: Patient survival as a function of the combination of markers tested. Thick grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; thin black curve: patients who received placebo. [Figure 11] Figure 11: Patient survival as a function of tumor immunogenicity defined by infiltration by TILs (tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) and PD-L1 expression. Grey curve: patients who received Vx-001; black curve: patients who received placebo. [Figure 12] Figure 12: Patient TTF as a function of tumor immunogenicity defined by infiltration by TILs (tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) and PD-L1 expression. Grey curves: patients who received Vx-001; black curves: patients who received placebo. [Figure 13] Figure 13: Survival of patients with non-immunogenic or immunogenic tumors as a function of the markers tested. LDH / gGT UNL = LDH / gGT below upper limit of normal. [Figure 14] Figure 14: TTF of patients with non-immunogenic or immunogenic tumors as a function of the markers tested. LDH / gGT UNL = LDH / gGT below upper limit of normal DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Detailed Description The present invention is based on the identification of categories of patients for whom the results of the Vx-001-201 study show that vaccination with Vx-001 would significantly benefit. The present invention relates to the use of Vx-001 to treat TERT-expressing tumors for each of the patient categories (shown below). The present invention also relates to the use of the TERT572Y peptide of SEQ ID NO:2 for inducing a CTL response against the cryptic epitope TERT572 of the sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 for each of these patient categories.

[0011] For each of these patient categories, the invention also relates to the use of peptide TERT572 of sequence SEQ ID NO: 1 to maintain the CTL response induced by peptide TERT572Y of sequence SEQ ID NO: 2 previously administered to the patient. As shown in the experimental section below, the first category of patients consists of HLA-A*0201 patients suffering from TERT-expressing tumors and with normal levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Another category of patients likely to respond favorably to Vx-001 vaccination consists of HLA-A*0201 patients suffering from TERT-expressing tumors and with normal levels of gamma glutamine transferase (gGT). HLA-A*0201 patients suffering from TERT-expressing tumors and who have both normal levels of gGT and normal levels of LDH constitute a category of patients who are particularly likely to respond favorably to Vx-001 vaccination.

[0012] "Normal levels of gGT" and "normal levels of LDH" refer to levels lower than the upper normal limit (UNL) defined by each laboratory according to the technical procedures and reagents used in that laboratory. It is not difficult for a person skilled in the art to identify whether a certain level is normal. Thus, the present invention relates to the use of Vx-001 for treating TERT-expressing tumors in HLA-A*0201 patients with normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH. By "treating" herein is meant at least slowing the progression of the tumor and / or prolonging the survival of the patient.

[0013] According to certain embodiments of the present invention, Vx-001 is administered to patients who have normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH after receiving at least one chemotherapy, and thus, Vx-001 is administered in addition to a first-line chemotherapy. According to another specific embodiment of the invention, Vx-001 is administered to a patient suffering from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), e.g., metastatic or recurrent NSCLC, and having normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH. The inventors also demonstrated that among patients with normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH, men responded statistically better to Vx-001 vaccination than women. Thus, according to another particular embodiment of the present invention, Vx-001 is administered to a male patient having normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH.

[0014] Similarly, the results of the Vx-001-201 study indicate that Vx-001 is statistically more effective for treating non-squamous than squamous tumors. Thus, according to another particular embodiment of the present invention, Vx-001 is administered to patients suffering from non-squamous tumors and who have normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH. According to another specific embodiment of the invention, Vx-001 is administered to patients aged 65 years or younger who have normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH. According to another specific embodiment of the invention, Vx-001 is administered to patients who have normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH and whose cancer is no longer progressing after chemotherapy, e.g., after first-line chemotherapy.

[0015] According to another particular embodiment of the invention, Vx-001 is administered to patients with normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH and an ECOG score of 0. The results of the Vx-001-201 study also show that normal serum levels of LDH and gGT correlate with longer survival and longer TTF in patients with non-immunogenic tumors. By "non-immunogenic tumor" herein is meant a tumor that does not express PD-L1 molecules (i.e., where at least 1% of tumor cells express PD-L1: tumor proportion score <1%) and / or a tumor that is not infiltrated by lymphocytes (i.e., where tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (or TILs) are completely absent or very low in number). Thus, according to another specific embodiment of the invention, Vx-001 is administered to patients who have normal levels of gGT and / or normal levels of LDH and whose tumors do not express PD-L1 molecules and / or are not infiltrated by lymphocytes.

[0016] The present invention also relates to an in vitro method for determining whether an HLA-A*0201 patient suffering from a TERT-expressing tumor is likely to respond favorably to an anti-cancer therapeutic vaccination with Vx-001, comprising a step of measuring the patient's gGT and LDH levels from a biological sample of the patient; according to this method, if at least one of these levels is normal, the patient is considered to be likely to respond favorably to the anti-cancer vaccination, and this is even more so if both the patient's gGT and LDH levels are normal. According to the methods of the present invention, the probability that a patient will respond favorably to Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccination is considered to be even higher if the tumor is non-immunogenic, i.e., does not express PD-L1 molecules and / or is not infiltrated by lymphocytes.

[0017] According to the methods of the present invention, the likelihood that a patient will respond favorably to a Vx-001 anti-cancer therapeutic vaccination is believed to be even higher if the patient further exhibits one or more of the following characteristics: (i) The patient is male. (ii) the patient has a non-squamous tumor (iii) The patient is aged 65 years or younger (iv) Patients have tumors that are no longer progressing after first-line chemotherapy. (v) The patient has ECOG=0. Of course, the different embodiments of the invention are not mutually exclusive, and patient categories having more than one of the above criteria are more likely to be good responders to Vx-001 vaccination. The invention is further described in the following experimental section, which should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. EXAMPLES

[0018] Working Example During the course of patient recruitment in the clinical trial, blood tests were performed after chemotherapy treatment. Since each laboratory applies its own tests and its own normal limits (UNL or "upper normal limit"), data were collected from the patients' medical files and classified according to the results obtained compared to the normal limits applied by the laboratory in question (Table 1). The information examined was LDH level, gGT level, ALP level, absolute neutrophil count, absolute platelet count and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. The efficacy of the investigational product (Vx-001) in this clinical trial was evaluated by comparing two criteria between patients receiving the investigational product and those receiving a placebo. - Overall survival rate of patients (referred to as OS) - The period during which the disease no longer progresses and the patient receives no treatment other than the investigational product (or placebo) (called the "time to treatment failure" and denoted TTF).

[0019] [Table 1-1] [Table 1-2] [Table 1-3] Table 1: Measurement of serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), gamma glutamine transferase (gGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), neutrophil / lymphocyte ratio (N / L) and absolute platelet count (Plat) Patients participating in the Vx0001-201 study were classified into several subgroups: L for patients in whom the marker was considered to have normal levels according to the criteria of the laboratory where the measurements were performed; H for patients with levels higher than the normal limits established by each laboratory; N=not applicable; Y=applicable; ND=not measured.

[0020] 1. Clinical response to Vx-001 and LDH levels Of the 190 patients enrolled in the Vx-001-201 study, 127 patients had normal serum levels of LDH. In this population, vaccination with Vx-001 significantly increased OS and TTF compared with placebo-treated patients (Figure 1). 2. Clinical response to Vx-001 and gGT levels Of the 190 patients enrolled in the Vx-001-201 study, 139 patients had normal serum levels of gGT. In this population, vaccination with Vx-001 increased OS compared to placebo-treated patients, but not significantly (p=0.10). In contrast, TTF was significantly increased (Figure 2). 3. Clinical response to Vx-001 and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) Of the 190 patients who participated in the Vx-001-201 study, 160 patients had normal serum levels of ALP. In this population, Vx-001 vaccination did not increase OS compared to placebo patients (p=0.74, Figure 3). The patient's ALP level did not affect the patient's ability to respond to Vx-001. The results regarding TTF were the same.

[0021] 4. Clinical response and blood cell counts to Vx-001 Blood counts are commonly used to assess the inflammatory state of a patient, so the absolute neutrophil count, as well as the ratio of neutrophil count to lymphocyte count and platelet count, are characteristic of the patient's general health. a. Clinical response to Vx-001 and absolute neutrophil counts Absolute neutrophil counts are a commonly used inflammatory marker. In particular, high numbers of neutrophils have been shown to be associated with a poor response to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) (Ferrucci et al., Annals Oncol 2016). No effect of neutrophil counts was observed with Vx-001 treatment: no difference in survival was observed between placebo and treated patients in either patients with high or normal levels of neutrophils (Figure 4). b. Clinical response to Vx-001 and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio Similar results were observed for the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio: no survival difference was observed between placebo and treated patients in patients with a neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio below 3 (a ratio commonly used as a cutoff in the literature (Mezquita et al., 2018; Ferrucci et al., 2016)) or above 3 (Figure 5). c. Clinical response to Vx-001 and platelet counts Finally, platelet count has no effect: no survival differences were observed between placebo and treated patients, either in patients with high or normal levels of platelets (UNL, or "upper limit of normal") (Figure 6).

[0022] 5. Combination of factors gGT and LDH Next, we evaluated the clinical efficacy of Vx-001 when combining factors, particularly those that showed an impact on patient survival and TTF. In 97 patients with both normal LDH and gGT levels, treatment with Vx-001 highly significantly increased survival and TTF: p=0.003 and p=0.0019, respectively (FIG. 7). A more detailed survival analysis of subgroups of the patient population with normal LDH and gGT serum levels shows that Vx-001 has a highly significant effect in patients suffering from non-squamous cell carcinoma (NSQ, p=0.0038), in male patients (p=0.0024), in patients who smoke (p=0.0099), in patients under 65 years of age (p=0.0019), in patients who entered the study with an objective response to chemotherapy (OR, p=0.036) or with stable disease (SD, p=0.034), in patients who entered the study with an ECOG of 0 (0.041) or with an ECOG of 1 (p=0.039). In contrast, and surprisingly, Vx-001 does not significantly increase survival in patients whose cancer has squamous histology (SQ, p=0.39), in female patients (p=0.27), and in patients over 65 years of age (p=0.08) (Figure 8).

[0023] Similarly, TTF analysis of the subgroups of the patient population with normal LDH and gGT serum levels confirms that Vx-001 has a very strong effect in patients with non-squamous cell carcinoma (NSQ, p=0.0009), male patients (p=0.0064), smokers (p=0.001), patients under 65 years of age (p=0.0017), patients who entered the study with an objective response to chemotherapy (OR, p=0.021), patients who entered the study with an ECOG of 0 (0.021) and patients over 65 years of age (p=0.0017). In contrast, Vx-001 does not significantly increase TTF in patients whose cancer has squamous histology (SQ, p=0.49), in female patients (p=0.25), and in patients who entered the study with stable disease after chemotherapy (SD, p=0.074) or with an ECOG of 1 (p=0.14) (Figure 9). The combination of LDH and gGT levels was the only factor combination whose effect was synergistic, the other combinations giving at best identical results to the analysis with LDH levels alone (Figure 10).

[0024] 6. Effect of LDH and gGT markers as a function of tumor immunogenicity Tumor immunogenicity depends on several factors, the most important of which are the presence of TILs (tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) in the tumor and the expression of PD-L1 molecules by tumor cells. We analyzed the effect of Vx-001 as a function of these two parameters in 136 patients for whom biopsy slides were available. The 22C3 pharmDx kit was used for detection of PD-L1. PD-L1 expression was analyzed according to the recommendations of the Agilent kit, which allows the quantification of tumor cells expressing PD-L1 (TPS: tumor proportion score). Three groups were classified: i) PD-L1 negative group (<1% of cells labeled; TPS <1%), ii) PD-L1 positive group (1-49% of cells labeled; TPS 1-49%) and iii) PD-L1 overexpressing group (>50% of cells positive; TPS >50%). Tumor infiltration by TILs (intratumoral sites (IS) and stromal sites (SS)) was qualified as i) absent (score 0), ii) very rare (score 1), iii) low (score 2), iv) average (score 3) and v) high (score 4). Tumors were classified as PD-L1 negative when less than 1% of tumor cells expressed PD-L1 (TPS; tumor proportion score; <1%) and as TIL negative when TILs were completely absent (score 0) or very rare (score 1) in the tumor core and tumor stroma. Individual results are shown in Table 2.

[0025] [Table 2-1] [Table 2-2] Table 2: TIL and TPS scores for patients for whom these data were available.

[0026] The results shown in Figure 11 indicate that Vx-001 extends the survival of patients with tumors negative for TIL and PD-L1 (8.7 months vs. 20.7 months, p=0.0089; 9.9 months vs. 15.5 months, p=0.13, respectively), but does not extend the survival of patients with tumors positive for TIL and PD-L1 (16.3 months vs. 14.3 months, p=0.197; 24.9 months vs. 7.9 months, p=0.29, respectively). The clinical efficacy of Vx-001 is even higher in patients with tumors that are TIL- and PD-L1- (6.6 months vs. 20.7 months, p=0.0049). Similar results were obtained in the analysis of TTF. Vx-001 prolonged TTF in patients with TIL-, PD-L1-, and TIL- / PD-L1- tumors (2.7 vs. 3.6 months, p=0.041; 2.3 vs. 3.5 months, p=0.079; and 2.2 vs. 3.6 months, p=0.011, respectively) (Figure 12). Analysis of the effect of both factors LDH and gGT according to tumor immunogenicity as defined by the presence of TILs and PD-L1 expression showed that normal levels of serum LDH and serum gGT correlated with longer survival (Figure 13) and longer TTF (Figure 14) in patients with non-immunogenic tumors (TIL-, PD-L1-, TIL- / PD-L1-), but not in patients with immunogenic tumors (TIL+, PD-L1+, TIL+, PDl-L1+).

[0027] References Ferrucci PF, Ascierto PA, et al., Baseline neutrophils and derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio: prognostic relevance in metastatic melanoma patients receiving ipilimumab. Ann Oncol. 2016 Apr;27(4):732-8. Georgoulias Vら,A multicenter randomized phase IIb efficacy study of Vx-001, a peptide-based cancer vaccine as maintenance treatment in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: treatment rationale and protocol dynamics. Clin Lung Cancer. 2013 Jul;14(4):461-5. Menez-Jamet Jら,Optimized tumor cryptic peptides: the basis for universal neo-antigen-like tumor vaccines. Ann Transl Med. 2016 Jul;4(14):266. Mezquita, L.ら,Association of the Lung Immune Prognostic Index With Immune checkpoint Inhibitor Outcomes in Patients With Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2018 Mar 1;4(3):351-357. Tourdot Sら,A general strategy to enhance immunogenicity of low-affinity HLA-A2. 1-associated peptides: implication in the identification of cryptic tumor epitopes. Eur J Immunol. 2000 Dec;30(12):3411-21.

Claims

1. An anti-cancer vaccine (Vx-001) comprising a peptide of sequence number 1 and a peptide of sequence number 2 for use in a method for treating tumors expressing telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) in HLA-A*0201 patients suffering from non-small cell lung cancer, characterized in that the vaccine is administered to patients having normal levels of gamma glutamine transferase (gGT) and / or normal levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH).

2. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine of claim 1, which is administered to patients with normal levels of gGT and normal levels of LDH.

3. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it is administered to a patient after first-line chemotherapy.

4. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is administered to a male patient.

5. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which is administered to patients with non-squamous cell tumors.

6. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which is administered to patients aged 65 or less.

7. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it is administered to patients whose cancer is no longer progressing after first-line chemotherapy.

8. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to any one of claims 1 to 7, which is administered to a patient with an ECOG score of 0.

9. The Vx-001 anti-cancer vaccine according to any one of claims 1 to 8, which is administered to a patient whose tumor does not express PD-L1 molecule and / or is not infiltrated by lymphocytes.

10. 1. A method for determining in vitro whether an HLA-A*0201 patient suffering from a TERT-expressing non-small cell lung tumor is likely to respond favorably to anti-cancer vaccination with Vx-001, comprising: The method comprises the step of measuring the patient's gGT and LDH levels in a biological sample from the patient, wherein if at least one of these levels is normal, the patient is likely to respond favorably to an anti-cancer vaccine.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that if the patient's gGT and LDH levels are both normal, the patient is more likely to respond favourably to anti-cancer vaccination with Vx-001.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that if the tumor does not express PD-L1 molecules and / or is not infiltrated by lymphocytes, the patient is more likely to respond favorably to anti-cancer vaccination with Vx-001.

13. Patients with the following characteristics: (i) You are male; (ii) have non-squamous tumors; (iii) 65 years of age or younger; (iv) having a tumor that is no longer progressing after first-line chemotherapy; (v) ECOG=0 The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the patient is even more likely to respond favorably to anti-cancer vaccination with Vx-001 if the patient exhibits one or more of the following:

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