Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘tazemetostat’

Dragon sculpture at ⁨Kiyomizu-dera Temple⁩, ⁨Kyoto

Cancer cells can exhibit a dynamic ability to change their identity in response to environmental pressures or treatments. This flexibility allows them to adapt by taking on different characteristics, enabling them to survive in challenging conditions.

A tumour cell that initially depends on a specific growth pathway can shift its traits to rely on alternative mechanisms when the pathway is blocked therapeutically.

Much as a magician can conjure up an illusion, the nifty cellular shift can contribute to resistance to cancer treatment.

In some cases, tumour cells may alter their surface markers or acquire features typical of another cell type, making them less susceptible to targeted therapies.

Understanding this behaviour – and the molecular underpinnings of the changes – is crucial for developing more effective strategies to counteract tumour evolution, escape, and resistance.

What if the targets also change in the process?

Ah, but what if we can adapt a treatment regimen to aim at the evolved targets, assuming we know what they are?  After all, if we put a blindfold on an archer then he likely won’t be able to see what and where the target is, whereas if they can see then the chances of success is much higher.

In our latest review we look at a number of targets and novel combinations based on key findings around the underlying molecular changes…

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Next stop – the ASH convention center!

In our final Preview ahead of the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), we’re focusing on immunotherapies.

With thousands of abstracts to wade through, it’s all too easy to think either there isn’t much going on or worse, so much it’s too complicated to even think about parsing.

To make things easier we picked ten different approaches to discuss, mostly involving early stage developments across numerous companies (big and small), plus a variety of targets, modalities and even immune cell subsets.

The value of looking at these kind of approaches now is being more prepared later in anticipating evolving trends and competitors because the IO space moves fast – and stealthily…

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Aggressive lymphoma… the very phrase is enough to send chills down your spine!

ASH Annual MeetingIn the past, much of the focus at previous American Society of Hematology (ASH) meetings in this area has focused on the myriad of chemotherapy regimens and dose/schedule optimisations that followed in trying to boost patient outcomes.

This year, I’m pleased to say that things have quite a different flavour with numerous new therapeutics and promising combinations in development.

Some of these are inevitably hypothesis testing, while others will be up-levelling to large randomised controlled multi-centre trials.

As part of our ongoing preview series, we take a look at the different categories to watch out for beyond chemotherapy.  These include monoclonal antibodies, antibody drug conjugates, targeted therapies and yes, even immunotherapies.

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Sarcoma is something we call one disease but actually represents 50-70 different histologies, which poses challenges for drug development.  Not only do you have to identify what’s the unique target, but it’s hard to accrue patients into trials, when a major center may only see a few of each sub-type.

Soft tissue sarcoma is an area of unmet medical need, and one I have been interested in since launching Gleevec in GIST (way back when) when I was fortunate to get to know many of the leading sarcoma experts.

One of these is Dr George Demetri, who is Director, Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

At the recent European Cancer Congress in Vienna, I had the privilege to talk with Dr Demetri about some of the latest research in soft tissue sarcoma.

We spoke about cancer immunotherapy, new small molecules and monoclonal antibodies, and the potential of targeting the epigenetic machinery.

A lot of what Dr Demetri is doing is currently “under the radar” and while he didn’t give any secrets away, he did give some sense of where some breakthroughs may occur in the not too distant future.  He also talked about how sarcomas with a specific target can be used for proof of concept clinical trials of novel agents.

Given the pressure that many companies are under to speed up their path to market strategies, accelerated approval in a rare tumour subset is one approach that can be considered.

It’s an exciting time in the field with the potential for several agents in development to move the needle and make a difference. I hope you enjoy this post, it was a real pleasure to talk with Dr Demetri again.

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