BIOLOGIE
Trials are ongoing to find out what the most effective dose of aspirin is for people with Lynch syndrome. With research still ongoing, patients should consult their doctor before taking aspirin as a preventative medicine, he added.
Aspirin taken daily for 2 years or more could reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in people with Lynch syndrome (LS), says NICE in new draft updated guidance.
DEP., DIAG. & PRONO - SEIN
Artificial intelligence reveals new breast cancer types that respond differently to treatment [Institute of Cancer Research]
Among the exciting implications of this research is its ability to pick out women who might respond well to immunotherapy, even when the broad classification of their cancer would suggest that these treatments wouldn’t work for them.
BIOPSIES LIQUIDES
In the paper, published in Clinical Cancer Research, researchers compared MSI detection in 1,145 blood samples with medical records of tests that had been done on their tumors. The Guardant test matched the records 98.4% of the time.
The two blood-based assays compared in the study, which are both available for clinical use in Europe, but not in the US, use two different PCR methods: Sysmex Inostics' BEAMing — a magnetic bead-based digital PCR platform — and Biocartis' Idylla quantitative real-time PCR technology.
TRAITEMENTS - PRÉ-CLINIQUE
Discovery of distinct lung cancer pathways may lead to more targeted treatments [Mayo Clinic]
As a next step, the team will work to determine whether they can effectively and specifically identify PKCiota-dependent versus independent lung adenocarcinoma in human patients and confirm whether experimental drugs can predictably inhibit the growth of lung cancer in the PKCiota-dependent and independent patients.
IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - PHARMA
Sillajen has informed Transgene of the IDMC’s recommendation to stop enrolment in the study, as the study is unlikely to meet its primary objective by the time of the final analysis.
Shares in Transgene fell about 19% in the immediate aftermath of the news. The failure is a bigger deal for SillaJen, which had gained a $3 billion market cap largely on the potential of Pexa-Vec. Shares in SillaJen fell 30% following the news.
Korean biotech sees shares blitzed as its oncolytic virus/Nexavar combo fizzles in liver cancer [EndPoints]
Korean biotech sees shares blitzed as its oncolytic virus/Nexavar combo fizzles in liver cancer [EndPoints]
The Phase III failure is also bad news for Transgene, which is partnered on the oncolytic virus, one of several pipeline plays that looks to build on a strategy that targets cancer cells for destruction.
Rakuten Medical reels in another megaround to fund cancer R&D [Fierce Biotech]
IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - ECONOMIE
Rakuten Medical reels in another megaround to fund cancer R&D [Fierce Biotech]
The idea is to conjugate antibodies to a dye that responds to a certain type of light. Once the drug binds to the target antigen, exposure to light triggers anti-cancer effects, thereby driving the precision destruction of tumors.
IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - ESSAIS
Roche’s Tecentriq plus platinum-based chemotherapy reduced the risk of disease worsening or death in people with previously untreated advanced bladder cancer [Roche]
Results will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting and shared with health authorities globally, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA).
IMMUNOTHÉRAPIES - CAR-T, THÉRAPIES CELLULAIRES
A company offering to freeze donors’ T cells and save them until the day they are needed—perhaps even years before the onset of cancer or disease—is getting off the ground with $1 million in funding and partnerships with some of the largest operators in blood sample management and cold chain logistics.
PHARMA
After a median follow-up of 30.3 months, median overall survival was almost three and a half years (41.3 months) in patients with acquired EGFR T790M-positive NSCLC treated in a real-world clinical setting, and the updated two-year OS rate was 80%.
PHARMA - ECONOMIE
Clovis leadership blamed the weak performance in Europe on Brexit preparations. As the company moved Rubraca out of the U.K. ahead of its planned March 29 exit from the European Union, it created inventory buildups elsewhere.
It’s no secret that Clovis Oncology is up against some serious marketing muscle in the PARP inhibitor arena. And investors are doubting the company’s ability to hang in there.
TRAITEMENTS - AMM
The decision comes months after independent experts on an advisory panel to the FDA voted in favor of Turalio as a treatment for the debilitating condition called tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT).
LUTTE CONTRE LES CANCERS - POLITIQUES
Because of the nature of the nuclear material, it cannot be stockpiled in the manner the government plans to with other medicines expected to be in short supply following a hard Brexit. The material decays rapidly, so any delays at the border means that isotope shipments could become unusable. Traditionally, the UK only manufactures only one kind of radioisotope within its borders – the rest are imported, with the “vast majority” coming from the EU.
