Oncothyreon ($ONTY), which takes its name from the Greek words for 'tumor' and 'shield', has enrolled the first patient into its inaugural ONT-10 clinical trial. The trial of the therapeutic vaccine, which targets the cancer biomarker MUC1, will initially focus on working out the best and safest dose of the vaccine over 8 weeks. The patients will then get the vaccine, once or twice a week, for another 8 weeks, to look at both the humoral (antibody-based) and cellular immune responses. "We hope that this trial will demonstrate in cancer patients that ONT-10 can stimulate both antibodies and immune cells directed at MUC1, as it has in animal models," explained Robert Kirkman, president and CEO of Oncothyreon. "We are also looking forward to obtaining the first human data with the adjuvant component of ONT-10, a fully synthetic lipid A analog called PET-Lipid A, which was developed at Oncothyreon." Oncothyreon release