Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Cancer Immunotherapy

Posts tagged ‘Biomarkers’

SITC19 Preview: Which new IO data that grabbed our interest?

National Harbor, MD

With the abstract drop from the 2019 Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) meeting now available, what can we learn from some of the research slated for formal oral presentation this year?

Here in part one (posters will be reviewed tomorrow) we take a look at a mix of preclinical and early clinical studies that grabbed our initial interest from the oral presentations – they include the good, bad, and intriguing – to see exactly what can be learned from this year’s mix of abstracts?

The short answer is quite a lot.

Every year the what to watch out for preview is a popular one.  This year there are some surprises in store as well as some particularly important findings that BSB readers may well be keen to find out more about ahead of the conference later this week in order to maximise their thinking and avoid the inevitable brain-fry and fatigue that sets in on Saturday afternoon…

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Waves and waves of T cells

NKTR-214 Cover on Cancer Discovery

In the third part of our mini-series on cytokines, we get down and dirty with another pegylated IL-2 approach, this time from Nektar Therapeutics, including an interview with the PI, Dr Adi Diab from MD Anderson Cancer Centre and CSO, Dr Jonathan Zalevsky.

We’ve certainly had many full ranging discussions and chats with the good gentlemen; here we continue our journey to understand more about the science and underlying biology, as well as key biomarkers of response.

We can also be provocative too and put them on the spot regarding their critics and some of the pointed questions that get bandied about, which certainly makes for interesting reading.  Are they justified?

What should we be looking for when analysing the data?  You can find out for yourselves in the latest expert interview.

Other pertinent topics are also covered including where they’re headed and future data readouts to expect.

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How understanding patient tumours can help us with future IO trials

In wave 3 of the immuno-oncology surge things have slowed down, partly due to a raft of combination trials yet to read out and partly because the reality has finally hit that tumour heterogeneity means there will be variable patient responses.

Just getting from room to room on time can be a real challenge with 40,000 other people present!

This complexity can come about in many forms… immunosuppression, alterations in gene functions, resistance and immune escape, to name a few.

If we want to help more people respond to these therapies then before we can rush headlong into another round of combination trials, we first have to go back to looking carefully at the underlying biology of the diseases and listen to what the patient’s tumours are telling us in order to fix things.

To accomplish this feat requires considerable time, energy, effort, and a lot of bioinformatics.

In this post we explore five key talks that highlight different aspects of biomarkers of response and mechanisms of resistance.  From there, we may see additional validation and prospective testing to determine how best to segment people so that they have the greatest chance of responding to the therapy administered.

One thing that most people don’t have these days is time, which is how we can help you because here’s a handy short cut to finding out more about five complex and diverse areas on biomarkers or IO resistance quickly and easily…

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The Future of Cancer Immunotherapy Biomarkers

Continuing our in-depth oncology pathology interview with Dr David Rimm (Yale), we take a look at some of the new data his lab presented in Atlanta, where we are now with TMB as a biomarker, and what the future may hold for cancer immunotherapy biomarkers.

Early morning in Atlanta en route to the GWCC and AACR19

In an engaging discussion, Dr Rimm discussed many of the details behind PD-L1 and TMB in terms of what really matters when thinking about these tests and their practical applications. He also shared his candid thoughts on the lung cancer blood TMB data presented at AACR by Prof Solange Peters.

If you missed the first part of the interview with Dr David Rimm, a leading oncology pathologist at Yale, on the various challenges associated with PD-L1 as a biomarker on tumour and immune cells in triple negative breast cancer than you can catch up and read it here.

The second half of the interview with Dr Rimm focuses on TMB, with some more details on the challenges of reading PD-L1 on immune cells and why that is the case…

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The Yin and Yang of biomarkers in cancer research

Paths to success in cancer research

It’s time to pull together some notes, ideas, and clinical data on various biomarkers based on data available from clinical studies in oncology R&D and see how much progress we are making.

Are biomarkers a good path to success in cancer research or are they a gloomy red herring to the road less travelled?

Both answers can be equally true, but how do we tell the difference?  Are there any clues that we can use ahead of time to avoid later disappointment?

There have been several early studies that we’ve been following lately with readouts available from numerous cancer conferences, both positive and negative.

Can we learn from the failures and successes of the past to better interpret outcomes from future trials?

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A tale of two cities – a look at two small immunotherapy biotechs

Cancer cells Source: Dr. Cecil Fox, NCI

As part of our ongoing mini-series on small emerging companies to watch out for, we have two quite different biotechs focusing on different aspects of immunotherapy on deck today.

We look at what we know, what we recently learned and where things are likely headed in the near to medium term future.

As always, there’s good and bad news along the way, so what are the pitfalls and what’s to be cheerful or encouraged about?

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Can we use exosomes for immune monitoring?

One of the ongoing challenges with cancer immunotherapy is monitoring response to treatment.

Even if you are one of the minority of people who do respond to cancer immunotherapy, many responders go on to develop acquired resistance or experience immune escape resulting in a loss of response to therapy, which means we need to be able to detect what is happening in the immune system of a cancer patient in order then identify the next treatment option.

Dr Whiteside in the poster hall at #AACR18

Could the proteins and nucleic acids carried by virus sized microvesicles called exosomes – present in their billions in blood plasma – provide insights into biomarkers of response to therapy and what is happening in the tumour?

Some people think they can, while others remain skeptical.

We think it’s cool area of research, worthy of consideration and following as we continue to explore various biopsy and blood/plasma approaches.

One person at the forefront of exosome research is Dr Theresa Whiteside from the University of Pittsburgh, where she’s a Professor of Pathology, Immunology and Otolaryngology.

At the recent 2018 annual meeting at AACR, she kindly spoke about her innovative work over the past year in what is now an exploding field of research…

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Fitting it all together – what does the post ASCO Lung Cancer Landscape look like?

It is always a pleasure to talk with experts who have a clear vision of not just what the current treatment landscape looks like, but where the field is going.

Dr Stephen Liu at ASCO18

Dr Stephen Liu is a medical oncologist and assistant professor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC, where he specializes in thoracic oncology.  He’s also actively involved in clinical trials and developmental therapeutics.

We last interviewed him at ASCO 2016 – you can also hear him on Episode 13 of the Novel Targets Podcast – where he shared his thoughts on some of the early lung cancer immunotherapy combination trials underway.

As regular readers know, we like to follow stories over time and also catch up with thoughtful, intelligent people we’ve talked to in the past whose opinions we value.

Dr Liu kindly shared his highlights of ASCO 2018 in lung cancer, and in a wide ranging discussion, also offered some thoughts on what the future may hold and where we may be going next.

There was a lot to learn from Chicago this year, with plenty of nuances and subtleties to consider. If you read only one post on lung cancer from ASCO18, this interview tells you all you need to know!

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Why don’t all cancer patients with a high TIL respond to immunotherapy?

One thing that often comes up is why don’t all inflamed tumours respond to immune checkpoint blockade or immunotherapy – it is that PD-L1 is a weak biomarker of response or are there factors that can explain the phenomenon?

ASCO 2011 #BlisterWalk

The ASCO #blisterwalk

Some new research now sheds some light on the issue.

This seemed to be a great opportunity to explore several topics around this theme and look at what the data from AACR and ASCO are potentially telling us.

Obviously we need to see the presentations in Chicago to be sure, but the good thing is that there are some good hints of where to start and what to think about going forward since they could have an impact on clinical trial design.

With a lot of observers focused on some disappointing results from, for example, Incyte’s epacadostat (IDO) and Jounce’s ICOS antibody, are there things we can do to improve the chances of success?

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Stacking up evidence from IO clinical trials

What we wanted to accomplish in our latest thought leader interview was to peek under the hood with someone active in this field who is an experienced participant in phase 2 and 3 trials, as well as being a solid translational researcher capable of thinking outside the box critically.

Stacking up the evidence from IO trials

Today we cover a global KOL’s perspectives on cancers of the lung, renal, bladder, and even melanoma, in a wide ranging discussion about immunotherapy trials and some of the pitfalls and opportunities to watch out for.

It makes for an intriguing read as there are likely a few issues that many have not thought about in great depth.

This is an important discussion in the context of not just data that was recently presented at several conferences including AACR, but also with the upcoming monotherapy and chemo combination trials (including squamous and non-squamous lung cancer) expected at ASCO in a few weeks time.

We discuss quite a few of the key challenges and opportunities relating to the broader picture and highlight some of the important issues to watch out for…

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