CCR4 inhibition in cancer: The potential to unlock antitumor immunity

In cancer, the secretion of certain chemokines from tumor cells and tumor-resident immune cells is responsible for recruitment of immunosuppressive Treg cells to tumor sites. Treg represent a dominant pathway for downregulating the immune response, and thus may limit the effectiveness of currently available therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors. Blocking the migration of Treg has the potential to restore naturally-occurring antitumor immunity as well as to synergize with a variety of both conventional and immune-based therapies, such as radiation, chemotherapy, checkpoint inhibitors, immune stimulators and adoptive T cell therapy. Our proprietary approach is designed to enable selective restoration of the immune response within tumors without systemically depleting T cells or broadly suppressing the immune system, a side effect experienced with existing CCR4 therapies. We believe that the inhibition of CCR4 has the potential to bring therapeutic benefit to patients across a wide spectrum of tumors in a manner similar to other immuno-oncology therapies that have been shown to be effective against multiple tumor types, while also potentially deepening and/or broadening clinical responses to these therapies.