Maja Cemazar
Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Slovenia
Electrochemotherapy and phase I clinical study on gene electrotranser of IL-12 coding plasmid
This keynote lecture is part of the ZapCancer workshop organized by the Celphy team
In this lecture, electrochemotherapy will be presented as a local ablative therapy based on electroporation, primarily used for the treatment of skin tumors, and already included in clinical guidelines in several European countries. Clinical results show high effectiveness. However, treatment response varies among tumor types. The lecture will highlight recent studies demonstrating synergy between electrochemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma. In addition, results of a phase I clinical trial of intratumoral gene electrotransfer of the plasmid phIL12, encoding interleukin-12, will be presented. This study demonstrated feasibility, safety, and good patient acceptability, providing a basis for future clinical studies combining gene therapy with local treatments such as electrochemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Prof. Maja Cemazar is the Head of Research and Education at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana and a lecturer in under and post-graduate courses of Cell and Tumor biology. Her main research interest is in the field of electroporation-based treatments – electrochemotherapy and gene electrotransfer – gene therapy. She is actively involved in development and execution of veterinary and human clinical. She is involved in 9 EU funded projects: 1 coordinator, 2 projects with industry. She authored or co-authored more than 340 publications; her h-index is 50, and has more than 7500 citations.