Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘VEGF’

Can chemotherapy improve checkpoint blockade in advanced colorectal cancer?

Driving St Charles StreetcarAfter exploring the science behind chemotherapy improving T cell trafficking into the tumour yesterday – which is one of the key rate limiting issues that need to be addressed with immunotherapies such as checkpoint blockade – some obvious follow-up questions comes to mind:

  1. Does the compelling data in mice translate to humans?
  2. Can chemotherapy turn a cold tumour into a hot one?
  3. Will patients have improved outcomes as a result – or not?

It’s easy to dismiss traditional therapies in favour of appealing new developments, but what happens when we combine them?  Do we get additive effects, synergies or a negative impact?

As part of our ongoing AACR coverage, we explored this conundrum in the context of new data readouts, as well as the broader competitive landscape.

What we found was really interesting!

BMS, Merck and Genentech/Roche all have trials ongoing in the metastatic colorectal cancer space, with very different approaches being taken.  Does it matter?  Which one’s driving the bus?  We summarise these trials and offer some strategic insights on this niche.

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AACR 2016 CD40 Cancer Immunotherapy

Dawlish TrainspottingIt’s Day 7 of our 12 day Countdown to AACR 2016 in New Orleans.  After exploring GITR and OX40, we’re now looking at another stimulatory target for cancer immunotherapy: CD40.

We’ve been writing about CD40 as a cancer immunotherapy target for some time. See posts: “CD40 as a Cancer Immunotherapy Target” and “Targeting CD40 in Cancer Immunotherapy.”

Anti-CD40 antibodies are agonists that act on stimulatory signalling receptors on T cells and antigen presenting cells (APCs). Targeting CD40 effectively acts to “put the foot on the gas” and may help generate a better immune response. This could be important in cancers that have fewer natural T cells present.

CD40 is an attractive target because it’s expressed in more than 50% of carcinomas and melanomas and almost all hematological B cell malignancies.  Of particular interest is the potential to combine a CD40 agonist with a PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor.

Multiple companies have CD40 agonists in clinical development including Roche, Apexigen, Alligator Biosciences and Seattle Genetics.  There are others coming too.

In this preview of AACR 2016, we’re looking at the CD40 landscape. New products and companies have entered the scene, so we’re highlighting them and some of the CD40 presentations to look out for at AACR 2016 (and why they matter).

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Update on Targeted therapies and Immunotherapies in Gastric Cancer

Updated data are often presented at conferences and therefore the results can differ from the submitted abstracts, which are sometimes submitted as placeholders based on immature data cutoffs. That was certainly the case in several examples at the ASCO GI conference in San Francisco last weekend.

San Francisco HerculesAfter Monday’s look at new developments in the lower GI tract, we now turn our attention today to the upper GI tract with a focus on oesophageal, gastric (stomach), and gastro-esophageal junction (GEJ) cancers.

Over the last five years we have seen new approvals for targeted therapies such as HER2+ gastric cancer and relapsed refarctory gastric cancers with a VEGF inhibitor. Will that trend continue over the next five years or will we see new approaches such as immunotherapy enter the market and dominate?

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Novel Immunotherapies and Combinations

Dr Mario Sznol

Dr Mario Sznol at SITC 2015 Patient Forum

“Novel Immunotherapies and Combinations” was the title of the talk by Dr Mario Sznol (Yale) at the recent Immunotherapy Patient Forum co-hosted by Global Resource for Advancing Cancer Organization (GRACE) and the Melanoma Research Alliance at the 2015 SITC annual meeting.

At the forum, Dr Sznol also led a breakout session, where he reviewed what is melanoma, the treatment of primary melanoma and management of advanced disease, as well as answering questions from the patients and patient advocates.

Often at medical meetings you hear the results of a clinical trial that is but one piece of the jigsaw, so it was interesting to hear a more comprehensive overview of the disease.

Dr Sznol kindly spoke with BSB about his vision for the future of cancer immunotherapies. This post includes excerpts from the interview along with additional commentary.

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What would Charles Darwin make of renal cell carcinoma?

At the last count, the renal cell carcinoma (RCC) space is quite competitive with five VEGF inhibitors (sunitinib, sorafenib, axitinib, pazopanib and bevacizumab), two mTOR blockers (temsirolimus and everolimus) and not forgetting IL–2, all approved by the FDA for the treatment of advanced disease.

Much of the recent focus has been on sequencing, exploring combinations (generally too toxic with little added benefit), and evaluating the potential for novel immunotherapies in development such as checkpoint inhibitors. Biomarkers are few and far between, making it hard to rationally decide which therapy each patient should get and in which sequence.

The key question is, why is this tumour type so challenging from a clinical and scientific perspective?

Screenshot 2015-03-23 12.44.32Recently, new data has begun to emerge that may help inform or enable us to switch to new approaches.  While the urologists are eagerly watching the live surgery on the EAU cam, we highlight research data presented at the European Association of Urology (EAU) in Madrid and take a look at how the underlying biology of RCC can elevate our knowledge about where the potential future strategies and blueprint might lie, if we want to facilitate exciting new developments in this field.

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AACR 2014: Review of novel targeted approaches in lung and prostate cancers

We hope that everyone had a relaxing holiday break and now it’s time to get back to work.  Tomorrow I will review some more of my thoughts in the immuno-oncology space, since that area had a tremendous amount of progress in San Diego with lots of new ideas to process and summarise.

In the meantime, a few people have written in and asked about what was happening with overcoming resistance in various tumour types, was there anything new to say in that space that was in addition to the the detailed previews we covered before the conference?

Actually, there was a quite a few posters and presentations that caught my eye, so I thought this would be a good idea to review them here:

Lung Cancer: HER2, VEGF, T790M, EGFR, erlotinib, gefitinib, trastuzumab, bevacizumab, CO-1686, AZD9291

Prostate Cancer: mTOR, PI3K, Androgen Receptor, enzalutamide, abiraterone, CC214–2, ARN–509, BET Bromodomian inhibition, ODM–201, GDC–0980, GDC-0068, PF–04691502, BKM120, BEZ235

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MetMab fails in phase III advanced lung cancer trial

This morning, I woke up early to a sad announcement from Genentech that:

“The Phase III METLung study of onartuzumab (MetMab) in combination with Tarceva in MET-positive, advanced non-small cell lung cancer did not meet its primary endpoint of overall survival in a planned interim analysis. At the recommendation of an independent data monitoring committee, we are voluntarily terminating the trial. Adverse events were similar between the two arms.”

Although the full data isn’t yet available, it will be presented at a future medical conference. My guess is that ESMO in Madrid will be a possibility, if the ASCO deadline has already passed.  I’ve been avidly following the concept of MET inhibition in advanced lung cancer for both ArQule’s tivantinib and Genentech’s MetMab (onartuzumab) since the data was first presented at ESMO nearly four years ago.  These posts are still available on Pharma Strategy Blog (open access).

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Update on immuno-oncology and biomarkers of response

Sometimes timing can be amusing when writing up data and conferences. Yesterday, while writing about the immuno-oncology developments in renal cell cancer (RCC), I was putting a table of the trials together and absent mindedly noticed that Merck didn’t have much going in this indication compared to BMS and Roche/Genentech.

Oddly, the company fixed that this morning with their announcement that they are expanding their combinations and collaborations for the anti-PD–1 antibody, MK–3475. One of the new trials includes a partnership with Pfizer for axitinib (Inlyta), enabling them to study a PD–1 + VEGF combination in RCC. The table in yesterday’s thought piece has now been updated to include this trial, although it is in the planning stage at present.

Today, I want to switch horses a little bit and talk about another immuno-oncology therapy, namely, ipilimumab (Yervoy).  Dr Charles Drake (Johns Hopkins) presented an update on the post chemotherapy trial (CA184–083) in CRPC at ASCO GU this weekend, which we wrote about from ESMO last Fall when the data was first presented (see here).  What’s interesting is that the trial, although negative, only just missed its endpoint.

Last week I came across some interesting new developments relating to ipilimumab that are well worth discussing here, particularly in relation to biomarkers, as they may have significant implications for the drug clinically.

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ASCO 2011 Cabozantinib (XL184) may be an exciting new prostate cancer drug

It’s hard to believe that the countdown to the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is now underway, but yesterday at 6pm, the ASCO abstracts were released.

Oliver Sartor at the recent annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) highlighted the prostate cancer potential of cabozantinib (XL184), an oral inhibitor of MET and VEGF kinases, so it was interesting to see that new data will be presented at ASCO.

What makes cabozantinib interesting?

The preliminary data shows that it not only has an anti-tumor effect, but also has an effect on bone metabolism.

The data presented at EORTC last year and at ASCO GU this year confirms what was seen in animal models, in that it had both an anti-metastatic effect on soft tissue and blockade of bone lesions.  Such dual action on both bone mets and the tumor microenvironment makes it an exciting new compound in prostate cancer.

By all accounts, the novel effect of cabozantinib on bone mets is unexpected.

At the forthcoming ASCO meeting, abstract 3010, whose lead author is Dr Michael Gordon of Pinnacle Oncology Hematology in Scottsdale, AZ  will present data on:

“Activity of cabozantinib (XL184) in soft tissue and bone: Results of a phase II randomized discontinuation trial (RDT) in patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors.”

According to Dr Gordon in the ASCO press teleconference yesterday, the phase II data at ASCO for cabozantinib in prostate cancer will show:

Complete or partial bone scan resolution in majority of patients (86%), often accompanied by pain relief

Unprecedented bone scan improvement

On the basis of these promising results, according to Dr Gordon, “Exelixis plans to initiate the first pivotal trial in prostate cancer by the end of 2011.”

It will be interesting to see whether cabozantinib can impact overall survival (OS) in advanced prostate cancer, something that denosumab (Xgeva®) failed to show in the 147 trial that was just presented at AUA.

There are several abstracts on cabozantinib at the ASCO 2011 annual meeting. Another one that caught my attention was abstract 4516, whose lead author is Maha Hussein of the University of Michigan.

Dr Hussein will present data on cabozantinib in metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The abstract’s conclusion is that:

Cabo showed clinical activity regardless of prior D in mCPRC pts, particularly in pts with bone disease, as reflected by high rates of b-scan resolution and pain relief, in addition to improvements in Hb and tumor regression.

I’ll be at ASCO in a few weeks time, so look forward to hearing more detail on the cabozantinib results.  The data is still very preliminary, but cabozantinib (XL184) is certainly a drug to watch, and may be an exciting new prostate cancer drug in the future.

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Regeneron announces positive trial results for VEGF Trap-Eye in Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)

Human eye cross-sectional view. Courtesy NIH N...Image via Wikipedia

VEGF Trap-Eye is a formulation of VEGF Trap (aflibercept) and is an anti-angiogenic agent that can be injected into the eye to stop the proliferation of blood vessels. Regeneron (REGN) are co-developing it with Bayer (BAY) and it is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and Central Retinal Vein Occlusion (CRVO).

Phase II DME clinical trial results presented at the
Angiogenesis 2010 meeting in Miami showed the primary endpoint of a
statistically significant increase in visual acuity over 24 weeks compared to
the standard of care (laser treatment) was met.

There are high levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) associated with DME, so the news that VEGF Trap-Eye has biological activity in this disease is positive.What makes this data promising is the fact that DME is the leading cause of blindness in adults under 50 and there are 370,000 Americans with clinically significant DME with 95,000 new cases a year.

The ability to treat DME by an eye injection, rather than use an expensive laser will make it easier to treat the disease. It will be interesting to see what how the cost of treatment with VEGF Trap-Eye compares to laser therapy procedures, should the agent make it to market.

The recent pricing issue faced by Genentech with its VEGF inhibitors Lucentis
(eye indications) and Avastin (oncologic indications) are also relevant because
Regeneron are developing VEGF-Trap in cancer with it’s partner sanofi-aventis
(a client).

For VEGF Trap-Eye, Regeneron retains all U.S. marketing
rights, while Bayer has rights to market ex-US in return for a 50/50 profit
share with Regeneron.The results so far look promising and aflibercept looks like an interesting agent well worth watching as the development moves forward.

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