Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘Cancer Immunotherapy’

Whipping up a frenzy in CAR-T cell future developments

Whipping up the CAR-T cell niche

In the sixth and final part of the latest CAR-T cell therapy mini-series, we take a look at a really key factor that will need to be addressed if we want to move forward in both hematologic and solid tumours in terms of improved outcomes.

To be clear, this is not about the obvious – tackling immune suppression – but something entirely different!

Now, that might well mean incorporating new regimens in the process or it could lead to version 3.0 in terms of new constructs to be tested in the clinic in due course.

What’s not to like?

Added bonus in this review is that it’s not one voice expressed here, but rather the consolidated perspective of four different experts, so you can quickly see clarity and differences of opinion on several topics…

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Quest for the Holy Grail of Cell Therapy

CAR T cell therapy for solid tumours is the cancer new product development equivalent of the quest for the “Holy Grail.” It remains one of the cell therapy challenges of the coming decade.

Light inspires and illuminates

In this post we shine the light on one of the world’s leading cell therapy experts who is taking on that challenge.

Most of our posts are what is known in the business as “long-form” and this one is no exception; it’s over 7,000 words long and offers a veritable smorgasbord of insights into new cell therapies for blood cancers and solid tumours, novel targets, as well as future directions, including a company in stealth mode…

Curious to learn more about this important topic on cracking the code and the quest to find solutions?

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ASH19 10 innovative approaches in Hematologic Malignancies

Breathing fire into cancer immunotherapies with novel approaches

It would be all to easy an exercise to pick out our top 10 abstracts of any particular conference and share them, which tends to create a somewhat skewed perspective because there are often many pieces of research that we may wish to highlight for entirely different reasons, making the exercise rather limited in scope.

Instead, how about 10 cool or next generation approaches that could have an impact in oncology in the future?

This approach generated a quite different and really eclectic list that can also have existing approaches referenced in context, so that we can see where the puck is moving towards as opposed to merely following it.

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ESMO19 Highlights from Day 1

Old Post Office in Barcelona

Barcelona – After the torrential rains that hit here earlier in the month at WCLC, it’s glorious weather in Barcelona for the 2019 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (#ESMO19).

Each day we’ll be providing highlights from the Congress with news, commentary and analysis from various presentations we’ve attended and thought leaders we’ve spoken to.

This ESMO Congress is a really exciting meeting, perhaps one of the busiest we’ve seen in recent years with multiple sessions in parallel to choose from. There are no shortage of data to discuss and review.  In distant years past, ESMO used to be known as the metaphorical dumping ground for negative trials that undoubtedly got lost in hurly burly – no longer! That changed after they started appearing in the Presidential Symposia and having the spotlight shone on the data. It’s now a much more vibrant meeting for clinical development, with an increasing translational focus thrown in too to explain the why and not just the what.  That’s good news for all of us.

To kick off our daily live ESMO coverage, we begin with sharing some useful insights gleaned from what we’ve heard so far plus more will be added throughout the day as we hear from the educational sessions later…

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Controversies in triple negative breast cancer at ESMO19

One of the expected highlights of the forthcoming European Society for Medical Oncology (Twitter #ESMO19) will be data for breast cancer immunotherapy.

In the first of our pre-ESMO19 previews we are taking a closer look at three breast cancer immunotherapy presentations that we think are noteworthy.

As a reminder, the abstracts are not yet available, so we’re not writing about data that’s not yet been presented, but instead are looking at why the presentations may be of scientific/medical interest, and what the questions we hope they will answer. In cancer biology as we heard from Professor Gerard Evan in a recent expert interview, it’s not about “what” happened, but “why”?

We have “boots on the ground” in Barcelona from Sept 27th to October 1st providing daily posts for BSB subscribers with our unique blend of data, analysis and commentary.

Do download the ESMO19 app if you want to check out what already looks like it will be a busy, informative and interesting congress in Barcelona. Hopefully the rain that struck the recent World Lung meeting in Barcelona will have gone away, leaving us with a sunny and dry spell one normally associates with Spain!

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Targeting Siglecs for Cancer Immunotherapy

One of the innovative areas of cancer immunotherapy is glycobiology, or targeting the sugars found on the surface of tumor cells or immune cells. There is a lot happening in this field around drug development, drug delivery and cell therapies.

Standing out from the crowd

It’s time to take a look at some of the targets around Siglecs (sialic acid-binding immunoglobin like lectins).

We’ve covered Siglecs briefly before in a discussion with Innate Pharma last year about their early pipeline agents, including a Siglec–9 antibody in preclinical development that was subsequently picked up by AstraZeneca.

Since then this space has blossomed with a number of companies rapidly vying for time, space, and attention, making it a good time to take a broader look at the evolving landscape

This primer sets the scene for our coverage on this emerging area in oncology R&D.

In a subsequent post, we have an interview planned with a thought leader at the forefront of translational research into targeting Siglecs.

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Alternative approaches to targeting cytokines

We’ve been covering cytokines and chemokines for several years now before they were hot cakes in the oncology space.

Fighting a way through the poster scrums or mosh pit is art in itself!

With a raft of new companies emerging in this area to challenge established players, things are getting much more interesting of late. That means it’s time for a new mini series exploring these opportunities through the eyes of the CEOs and CSOs.

We ask what’s different about their approaches and look at why should you be paying attention to them.

We begin with the first of a new three part series exploring novel and intriguing ways to activate cytokines and stimulate the immune system in various cancers.

This story begins with some new Gems from the Poster Halls that readers may well find fascinating…

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Insights from CIMT in Mainz Part 1

Mainz, Germany: A grey and gloomy day by the river Rhine has been brightened up by the quality of science on display at the 2019 annual meeting of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT) (Twitter: #CIMT2019).

Dr Nicky McGranahan presenting at CIMT 2019

We were last here in Mainz 18 months ago for the EACR-CIMT-AACR Immuno-Oncology conference.

Cancer immunotherapy remains a work in progress, however.

What’s increasingly becoming more important is understanding the science, in particular finding answers to critical “why” questions that help us to not only understand the biology of cancer, but also why some people respond and others don’t.

In this post, we describe some of the key highlights and have penned some thoughts on some of the oral talks and posters presented today.

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AACR19 Preview of Cancer Immunotherapy Sessions – Part 2

Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta

In the first part of our preview we looked at the cancer immunotherapy related program from Friday through Sunday at the AACR 2019 (#AACR19) annual meeting at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) in Atlanta.

This post looks at the program from Monday to Wednesday – you can find a review of the IO track for Fri-Sat here.

Don’t forget you can review the precise room details via the AACR meeting app prior to attending sessions as these are sometimes subject to change. We’ve based our posts on the preliminary program and it is highly likely there will be changes to meeting rooms, based on past experience.

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AACR19 Preview of Cancer Immunotherapy Sessions – Part 1

We’re starting our review of the program for the forthcoming 2019 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (Twitter hashtag to follow: #AACR19) with a look at the cancer immunotherapy program.

One of the challenges of a large meeting is that it’s like a smorgasbord or buffet in a hotel that’s resplendent in choices, but you can’t possibly eat it all.

Choices!

Some choose to follow a research area, others a target or tumor type. There’s a lot of ways to segment the program depending on your specific interests.

However, it’s a good idea to have a plan in place ahead of a large conference such as AACR, even if you modify it as you go to take into account evolving needs.

Seasoned conference goers will be familiar with the maxim known as “the law of two feet” – if a session you are in doesn’t live up to expectations or meet your needs and something else looks more to your taste from the tweets, then simply dash off to another!

In our latest conference preview, we’ve taken a careful look at the cancer immunotherapy track.

What are some of the key sessions to put on your calendar if you’re following this track or have an interest in this area?

In Part 1, we review the IO sessions from Friday to Sunday then tomorrow in Part 2, we’ll review the schedule from Monday to Wednesday.  Yes, it’s that intense this year! Just think, five years ago you had to search the program really quite hard indeed to even find much on immuno-oncology, as it was very much in its infancy then.

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