Biotech Strategy Blog

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Posts from the ‘Imaging’ category

ASCO 2012: Zytiga fails to show overall survival pre-chemo

By on June 4, 2012

ASCO 2012 COU AA 302 Presentation Title Slide 300x225 ASCO 2012: Zytiga fails to show overall survival pre chemoMen with advanced prostate cancer want to know “if I take this drug, will I live longer?” Unfortunately, for abiraterone acetate (Zytiga®) in the pre-chemotherapy setting i.e for asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic men, doctors will only be able to say, “maybe” and tell the patient there is a strong trend towards an overall survival (OS) advantage.

You can read my Xconomy article published yesterday, on why I think it was a mistake for the abiraterone acetate COU-AA-302 trial (302 trial) in chemotherapy-naïve (pre-chemo) men to be stopped early.  The results were presented on Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago.

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AACR 2012: Promising CML & PI3K compounds from Indian company Piramal Healthcare

By on April 24, 2012

India to me conjures up thoughts of curry, cricket and call centers.  When I think about the Indian pharmaceutical industry, global manufacturers of generics such as Ranbaxy, Natco and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories come to mind.

AACR 2012 Exhibits Posters 300x225 AACR 2012: Promising CML & PI3K compounds from Indian company Piramal Healthcare

Photo: Pieter Droppert/Biotech Strategy Blog

What I don’t associate India with, is pharmaceutical drug discovery and the development of new drugs.

Pharmaceutical R&D is not only expensive, but requires a high-degree of expertise and comes with a high risk of failure.

Companies in the United States, Europe and Japan still develop most new drugs.

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Cabozantinib Prostate Cancer Bone Scans – Part 2 of an interview with Dr Maha Hussain

By on March 14, 2012

This is part 2 of my interview with Dr Maha Hussain, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Michigan.  You can read part 1 about cabozantinib and pain here.

ASCO 2011 Cabozantinib Bone Scan Images 300x225 Cabozantinib Prostate Cancer Bone Scans Part 2 of an interview with Dr Maha Hussain

At the 2011 ASCO annual meeting, Dr Hussain presented data from a non-randomized phase 2 trial with cabozantinib that showed dramatic improvements in bone scans before and after treatment.

Bones are living tissues that are constantly being remade, a dynamic process that involves formation of new bone and taking up of old bone, a process known as bone resorption.  Cancer cells can interfere with bone remodeling, resulting in increased new bone formation (osteoblastic response) or excessive bone resorption (osteoclastic response).

This is a preview of Cabozantinib Prostate Cancer Bone Scans – Part 2 of an interview with Dr Maha Hussain. Read the full post

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The Mannogram – how imaging may revolutionize prostate cancer diagnosis

By on March 8, 2012

Slide011 300x210 The Mannogram – how imaging may revolutionize prostate cancer diagnosis“The Mannogram – Yes we scan” Jelle Barentsz, Professor of Radiology at Radbound University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands told the assembled media at the recent European Association of Urology (EAU) annual Congress in Paris.

Professor Barentsz described how advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and in particular multi-parametric MRI (Mp-MRI) offer the potential for the improved detection and characterization of prostate cancer.

In the same way there is a mammogram that women use for breast cancer screening, Professor Barentsz raised the possibility that using magnetic resonance imaging, men could have a mannogram to screen and diagnose prostate cancer.

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Targeting IDH1 in Glioma Patients

By on January 17, 2012

One of the challenges of the next decade in cancer research will be targeting cancer metabolism; imaging is likely to play a key role in drug development.

Targeting IDH1 in Glioma PatientsThe cover of the January 11 online issue of Science Translational Medicine (STM) shows a brain tumor (glioma) in red, detected using non-invasive nuclear magnetic resonance imaging that highlights cancer metabolism.

In a paper published in STM, Andronesi and colleagues from Harvard & other Cambridge, MA institutions (including Agios Pharmaceuticals – more on them later), showed that excess production of the metabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG) could be used as a biomarker for a subset of glioma.

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Photoimmunotherapy may be a new way to deliver molecular-targeted cancer drugs

By on December 1, 2011

Photoimmunotherapy (PIT) that uses a near-infrared (NIR) dye conjugated to monoclonal antibodies (mABs) that target epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) is a new type of molecular-targeted cancer therapy that appears to offer considerable promise.

Research by Makoto Mitusnaga and colleagues from the Molecular Imaging Program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was published recently in Nature Medicine. This paper is well worth reading if you have an interest in this area.

The NCI researchers developed a:

“mAb-based photosensitizer that is activated by NIR light for targeted PIT only when bound to the target molecule on the cancer cellular membrane.”

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Prostate Cancer Session at AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets San Francisco

By on November 17, 2011

San Francisco Cable Car 300x225 Prostate Cancer Session at AACR NCI EORTC Molecular Targets San FranciscoThe recent AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics international conference in San Francisco was an informative meeting.

What I particularly liked was the strategic overview that took place in many of the plenary sessions.

As an example, Johann de Bono, Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research/The Royal Marsden in London highlighted the potential drug development targets based on prostate cancer biology:

  • Androgen Receptor (AR)
  • Heat Shock Proteins (Hsp)
  • Signaling: HER3, MET, IGF-1R, CCL2, IL-6, Src
  • PI3K/AKT/TOR signaling
  • PARP and BRCAness
  • Estrogen receptor (ER)
  • c-MYC & CHK1
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New Imaging Agents may improve Glioblastoma Surgery

By on November 1, 2011

Cancer Research UK issued a press release today about a phase 2 trial (GALA-5) in glioblastoma that caught my attention.

The trial, led by Colin Watts from the University of Cambridge, will treat patients with 5-Amino-Levulinic Acid (5-ALA), a metabolic marker of malignant glioma cells.  5-ALA is preferentially taken up by brain tumor cells and then converted into a strongly fluorescing porphyrin.

This conversion by the body of 5-ALA to a fluorescent chemical, shows the location of the glioblastoma when imaged under ultraviolet light.

cr 078690 300x225 New Imaging Agents may improve Glioblastoma Surgery

The practical application of this is that it allows better identification of the tumor margins and avoids the removal of unnecessary brain tissue.

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Insights from Society for Translational Oncology Prostate Cancer Symposium

By on October 31, 2011

The Oncologist Journal of the Society for Translational Oncology (STO) has published a video recording on prostate cancer that is well worth watching for those with an interest in this area.

At their Sept 8, 2011 CME symposium held in Belfast, a roundtable was held entitled “Prostate Cancer: Progress & Promise.”

Moderated by Bruce A. Chabner (Mass General/Harvard), the panelists were Joe O’Sullivan (Queen’s University, Belfast), Johann De Bono (The Institute for Cancer Research) and David Waugh (Queen’s University, Belfast).

Professor de Bono in the video comments that”

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A year in review on Biotech Strategy Blog

By on October 26, 2011

Biotech Strategy Blog is 1 today!  I can’t believe that a year has gone by so quickly!  Before moving on to year 2, I thought a brief review might be interesting.

What have been the top posts on Biotech Strategy Blog this past year?

In terms of total visitors per post:

  1. Results from NEJM Lucentis v Avastin AMD CATT clinical trial
  2. AUA Results from PIVOT study show no benefit from radical prostatectomy in low risk early stage patients
  3. ASCO 2011 Cabozantinib (XL184) may be an exciting new prostate cancer drug
  4. Merck’s capthepsin-K inhibitor odanacatib in osteoporosis
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