Early trial results found median survival nearly doubled in ovarian cancer patients with addition of Elenagen

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CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 14, 2026 – Results of an early clinical trial showed that women whose ovarian cancer is resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy had nearly double the median survival rate when a newly developed anti-cancer DNA vaccine treatment was added to chemotherapy.

The early results of the clinical trial were presented by Dr. Gabriel Leven, of McGill University, Canada, at the 27th Congress of the European Society of Gynecological Oncology meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meeting held Feb. 26-28, 2026 was attended by more than 3,000 of the world’s leading gynecological oncologists.

Approximately 20,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year in the US. Due to a lack of obvious symptoms, it is typically diagnosed at advanced stages with a 5-year survival rate of 43 percent. The majority of women with high-grade tumors treated with surgery and chemotherapy who experience recurrence eventually develop platinum-based chemotherapy resistance.

Elenagen works by targeting a protein called p62, which cancer tumors produce at elevated levels to protects from chemo- and radiation therapy. By injecting Elenagen, a DNA or RNA drug with a gene encoding p62 into a muscle, the vaccine induces an immune response that finds and eliminates cancer cells that express elevated levels of p62. 

The phase II trial involved 30 patients who could be evaluated for overall survival. All patients had ovarian cancer that had failed to respond to platinum-based chemotherapy. The patients were randomly assigned to receive the non platinum-based chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, or gemcitabine in combination with a newly developed immunotherapy drug, called Elenagen.

After two years, patients in the gemcitabine alone group had survived a median of 13 months, compared to a median survival of 25 months for those treated with the combination therapy with gemcitabine and Elenagen. That worked out to a 59 percent reduction in the risk of death for those treated with the combination therapy. Several patients in the Elenagen group survived years beyond expected survival for the disease.

In addition, there was no increase in treatment-based side effects beyond those associated with gemcitabine, which include increased risk of infection, nausea, vomiting, liver damage, skin rash, hair loss and flu-like symptoms.

"What makes these results remarkable is not only the magnitude of the survival benefit," Co-author of the study Sergei Krasny, MD, PhD, ScD said in a press release, "but that it was achieved without added toxicity and without specific biomarker. This suggests a fundamentally different therapeutic approach - one that supports the body’s biology rather than simply intensifying chemotherapy.”

The study authors concluded that if their results are validated in larger phase III clinical trials, Elenagen could expand treatment options for patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

Sources: ESGO 2026 press release and the journal of International Journal of Gynecological Oncology