ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05492682Updated Nov 9, 2026

START: Safety and Anti-Tumor Activity of PeptiCRAd-1 in Treatment of Cancer

A Phase 1 interventional study of PeptiCRAd-1 and Cyclophosphamide in Melanoma (Skin), Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, sponsored by Valo Therapeutics Oy. Recruiting at 7 sites in 2 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-09.

Sponsored by Valo Therapeutics Oy · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Feb 2023; still recruiting 3 years 9 months later.
Updated Nov 9, 2026Site recruiting status changedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
15
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study is being conducted to explore the immunological mechanism of action of Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus-1 (PeptiCRAd-1) plus Checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy in multiple cancer types, as well as to obtain early information on the safety of this combination therapy.

Read the detailed description

This is a Phase I, open-label, non-randomized, first-in-human study. All patients will be pre-treated with a low dose of intravenous (i.v.) Cyclophosphamide (CPO) followed by monotherapy doses of PeptiCRAd-1. PeptiCRAd-1 will be administered by intratumoral (i.t.) injection (Cohort 1) and by i.t. and subcutaneous (s.c.) injection (Cohort 2) followed by combination therapy with PeptiCRAd-1 and i.v. CPI (pembrolizumab).

02

Conditions studied

  • Melanoma (Skin)
  • Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
  • Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
  • Synovial Sarcoma
  • Myxoid Liposarcoma
  • Colorectal Cancer
  • Osteosarcoma
  • Sarcoma
03

In context

Melanoma

3,370 studies on the registry are indexed under Melanoma; 578 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 15 is below the median of 40 across 2,649 interventional studies indexed under Melanoma.

Browse Melanoma studies →

Lead sponsor

This is the only study on the registry with Valo Therapeutics Oy as lead sponsor.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Written .
  2. Male or female, ≥18 years of age.
  3. Patients with any 1 of the following confirmed tumors and who qualifies for new or continued CPI therapy and relapsing to/after standard therapy or the patient has refused or does not tolerate standard therapy:

    • Inoperable/ cutaneous malignant melanoma
    • or newly diagnosed locally advanced inoperable/metastatic TNBC
    • Inoperable advanced/metastatic non-squamous NSCLC
    • Inoperable and/or advanced Synovial or myxoid round cell sarcoma
    • Inoperable and/or advanced osteosarcoma
    • Inoperable and/or advanced colorectal cancer, patients assessed as positive for NY-ESO-1 or MAGE-A3 expression at baseline
    • Inoperable and/or advanced/metastatic sarcoma, patients assessed as positive for NY-ESO-1 or MAGE-A3 expression at baseline
  4. according to (RECIST) 1.1.
  5. Tumor lesion which is deemed feasible for and injection
  6. performance status 0 to 1.
  7. Acceptable liver and renal function, defined as:

    • Total ≤1.5 x (ULN; does not include patients with Gilbert's Disease), and
    • (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ≤3.0 x ULN, and
    • Serum creatinine ≤1.5 x ULN
  8. Acceptable hematological function, defined as:

    • ≥9 g/dL, and
    • Neutrophils ≥1.5 x 109/L, and
    • count ≥100 x 109/L Patients may be transfused to meet the hemoglobin entry criteria.
  9. Acceptable coagulation status defined by (INR) of blood clotting, prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time within ≤1.5 x upper limit of normal.
  10. Negative pregnancy test at screening in all women of (WOCBP). Such patients must agree to use a highly effective method of (Appendix 1) during study intervention and for 3 months after the last virus treatment, 4 months after the last dose of pembrolizumab, and 12 months after CPO dosing. Male patients and male partners of female patients must also use barrier contraception, i.e., condom, for the time periods specified for WOCBP, plus a further 3 month period.

    Urine pregnancy tests should have a sensitivity of at least 25 mIU/mL for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). If the urine test is positive, it must be followed by a quantitative analysis of hCG concentration in blood.

  11. Prior therapy with an immune CPI is allowed provided a 6-week is observed for patients with prior programmed cell death (PD)1 or PDL1 treatment

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Receipt of any oncolytic virus treatment, or administration of a vaccine containing live virus within 4 weeks before Day 1.
  2. Use of significant medication, including high dose (defined as the equivalent of >10 mg/day prednisone) within 4 weeks before Day 1. Inhaled or topical corticosteroid use is allowed.
  3. Prior or concomitant radiotherapy within 4 weeks before Day 1.
  4. Participation in a study with an drug or device within 4 weeks prior to Day 1.
  5. Active bacterial, viral, or fungal infection that requires systemic therapy.
  6. Active disease that has required systemic treatment in the past two years.
  7. Concomitant disease or condition that could interfere with the conduct of the study, or that would, in the opinion of the investigator, pose an unacceptable risk to the patient, if included in this study.
  8. Any concomitant medical condition requiring receipt of a therapeutic anticoagulant that, in the opinion of the treating physician, cannot safely be withheld to allow for repeated injection of PeptiCRAd 1 and tumor .
  9. Known infection with , , or or active tuberculosis.
  10. Known active central nervous system . Patients with , carcinomatous meningitis, symptomatic , or radiographic signs of CNS hemorrhage are excluded.

    Note: Participants with asymptomatic brain metastases (i.e. off corticosteroids and anticonvulsants for at least 7 days) are permitted.

  11. Any prior severe AE according to (CTCAE), severe reaction attributed to prior anti-PD1 or PDL1 therapy or components of the study intervention or has a history of any that, in the investigator's opinion, would contraindicate pembrolizumab administration such as:

    • Resolution of side effect of prior anti-PD1 or PDL1 therapy to Grade 1
    • Grade 2 or higher pneumonitis
    • Grade 4 or ALT elevation
    • Grade 3 or higher colitis attributable to immunotherapy Note: in the absence of clinical symptoms of pancreatitis, elevations of amylase or lipase are not contraindications to therapy on this trial.
  12. History of or planned tissue / organ transplant.
  13. Females who are pregnant or breast feeding or expecting to conceive within the projected duration of the study starting with the screening visit or males expecting to father children within the projected duration of the study starting with the screening visit.
  14. Unwillingness or inability to comply with the study protocol for any reason.
  15. Admission to an institution by virtue of an order issued by the judicial or administrative authorities.
  16. Sponsor or Contract Research Organization employees, or employees under the direct supervision of the investigator or the investigational sites and/or involved directly in the study.
  17. Prior or concurrent , unless the natural history or treatment of the disease does not have the potential to interfere with the safety or efficacy assessment of the investigational regimen.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(30)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Histologically or cytologically confirmed

The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).

Your pathology report is the document that shows this.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

Relapsed and refractory

Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.

Measurable disease

The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.

The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.

RECIST

The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.

“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)

Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.

Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Washout period

A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Leptomeningeal disease

Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.

Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.

Brain metastases

Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).

Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.

CTCAE grade

The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.

1
Mild.
2
Moderate.
3
Severe.
4
Life-threatening.
5
Death due to the event.

“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Sequential assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
15 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Cohort 1

    Patients in Cohort 1 are treated with PeptiCRAd-1 administered i.t.

    Drug: PeptiCRAd-1 · Drug: Cyclophosphamide · Drug: Pembrolizumab

  • Experimental
    Cohort 2

    Patients in Cohort 2 are treated with PeptiCRAd-1 administered i.t. and s.c.

    Drug: PeptiCRAd-1 · Drug: Cyclophosphamide · Drug: Pembrolizumab

Interventions

  • DrugPeptiCRAd-1

    All patients will receive PeptiCRAd-1.

  • All patients will be pre-treated with one single dose of Cyclophosphamide.

  • All patients will receive 6 doses of Pembrolizumab within the study.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Measurement of Safety and tolerability indexes (Incidence of TEAEs, SAEs and DLTs as assessed by CTCAE version 5.0 and changes in assessed safety parameters) for PeptiCRAd-1 monotherapy.

    The incidence and characteristics of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs), serious adverse events (SAEs) and dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) will be assessed by CTCAE version 5.0 and changes from baseline in assessed safety parameters (Hematology tests, Clinical Chemistry safety tests, urine analysis ECOG/WHO performance status, vital signs) are measured in patients receiving PeptiCRAd-1 monotherapy in order to evaluate the safety and tolerability.

    Time frame: From study protocol day 1 (baseline) until 1 month

  2. Measurement of Safety and tolerability indexes (Incidence of TEAEs, SAEs and DLTs as assessed by CTCAE version 5.0 and changes in assessed safety parameters) for PeptiCRAd-1 and CPI combination.

    The incidence and characteristics of TEAEs, SAEs and DLTs will be assessed by CTCAE version 5.0 and changes from baseline in assessed safety parameters (Hematology tests, Clinical Chemistry safety tests, urine analysis ECOG/WHO performance status, vital signs) are measured in patients receiving PeptiCRAd-1 and CPI combination in order to evaluate the safety and tolerability.

    Time frame: From first month through study completion, an average of 4.5 months.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Measurement of New York Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma-1 (NY-ESO-1) and Melanoma-associated antigen 3 (MAGE A3) specific T-cells in peripheral blood.

    Presence vs. no presence of cellular immune response.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline through study completion, an average of 5 months.

  2. Measurement of NY-ESO-1 and MAGE A3 antibodies in serum.

    Presence vs. no presence of humoral response.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline to an average of 3,5 months

  3. To determine the number of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in tumor mass.

    Number of TILs in tumor biopsies.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline to an average of 3 months

  4. To determine objective response rate (ORR).

    Objective responses according to RECIST 1.1, iRECIST, itRECIST and PERCIST 1.0.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline through study completion, an average of 5 months.

  5. To determine overall survival.

    Overall survival presented in Kaplan-Meier plot.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline through study completion, an average of 5 months.

  6. Correlation between immune activation in peripheral blood and tumor mass and clinical outcome.

    Correlation between immune activation (immunological variables) in peripheral blood and tumor mass and clinical outcome (ORR, OS).

    Time frame: Change from Baseline through study completion, an average of 5 months.

Other outcomes

  1. Measurement of PFS according to RECIST 1.1, itRECIST, and PERCIST 1.0.

    Progression free survival (PFS) is measured, according to RECIST 1.1, iRECIST, itRECIST, and PERCIST 1.0, and will be presented using the Kaplan-Meier approach.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline through study completion, an average of 5 months.

  2. Measurement of virus shedding profiles (presence of infective virus and virus DNA in blood, urine, buccal, fecal and injection site swabs by infectivity assay and qPCR).

    Presence of infective virus (infectivity assay) and virus DNA (quantitative polymerase chain reaction, qPCR) will be measured in blood, urine, buccal, fecal and injection site swabs.

    Time frame: Changes from baseline to an average of 3,5 months.

  3. Immune phenotyping in tumor mass.

    Measurement of biological and immunological changes (including number of T-cells) in biopsies of injected and non-injected tumors over time.

    Time frame: Changes from baseline to to an average of 3 months

  4. Measurement of the phenotype of circulating immune cells in peripheral blood.

    The immunological landscape in peripheral blood will be determined.

    Time frame: Change from Baseline through study completion, an average of 5 months.

07

Study locations

2 of 7 sites recruiting
08

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Feb 2023 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Apr 2027, 50 months after the start.

Of 225 industry-sponsored phase 1 interventional studies under Melanoma, half reached primary completion within 46 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 28 and three quarters within 66. This study's planned 50 months is close to that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 411 studies reached it within 49 months; a quarter within 31 and three quarters within 76.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
May 18, 2022
First posted
Aug 8, 2022
StartActual
Feb 2, 2023
Primary completionEst.
Apr 30, 2027
CompletionEst.
May 31, 2027
Last update
Nov 9, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Sites
Università di Napoli Federico II is now Recruiting
Nov 9, 2026
Site contacts
Changed at 1 site. See the sites
Show the site
  • Università di Napoli Federico II · Naples, ItalyContact none listed→•••1111
Nov 9, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Nov 9, 2026
    Università di Napoli Federico II is now Recruiting
    Site contacts Changed at 1 site. See the sites
    Show the site
    • Università di Napoli Federico II · Naples, ItalyContact none listed→•••1111
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05492682
Lead sponsor
Valo Therapeutics Oy
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 8, 2022
Start date
Feb 2, 2023
Primary completion
Apr 30, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
May 31, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 9, 2026

Study contacts

Kuryk, PhD
Contact
info@valotx.com
0505876088 ext. 358

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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