Cancer is an elusive foe. Rarely does a single therapy or intervention knock it out, which is why drug combinations are at the top of the agenda for doctors and researchers, even as cutting-edge treatments such as the latest immunotherapies move the field forward.
Presage Biosciences of Seattle has created a way to test combinations of cancer drugs in live tumors. The firm is developing a device, bristling with tiny needles, which injects microscopic amounts of multiple drugs directly into tumors. Other firms, such as Celgene, have paid Presage millions of dollars to use the device for their own drug experiments.
Here and there, the genetic information of a cancer patient has helped a doctor find that person the right drug or steer her away from the wrong one. But the use of genetic knowledge to improve people’s health is in its infancy.
An innovative technology developed in Israel may soon be able to predict the spread of cancer from one organ to another, potentially saving the lives of millions of people around the world.
The technology, developed at Israel’s Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, has been proven in preliminary laboratory trials, and is now entering into advanced testing using cells from patients undergoing surgery.
San Diego’s Avelas Biosciences says today that UC San Francisco has begun enrolling women who face breast cancer surgery in a clinical trial for AVB-620, a diagnostic agent that helps surgeons differentiate cancerous tissue from healthy tissue in real time.
The technology behind AVB-620 was developed by Roger Tsien, a UC San Diego biochemist who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his role in the discovery and development of fluorescing peptides. Tsien co-founded Avelas in 2009 with investor Kevin Kinsella, the founder of San Diego’s Avalon Ventures.
BioSight, a medical technology start-up, has developed a technology that enables leukemia patients to avoid the worst effects of chemotherapy.
“Our interim results in a major study of patients with leukemia shows that our system yields the maximum efficiency from chemo, with a minimum of toxicity,” said Dr. Ruth Ben Yakar, CEO of BioSight. “Our method of using chemo does not cause brain damage or weaken blood cells,” with all its attendant phenomena, such as lethargy, loss of hair, etc.
Moderna Therapeutics remains the Boston area’s most mysterious, yet well-capitalized private biotech, with more than $800 million to play with. And while it’s still unclear just what type of progress the messenger RNA specialist has made scientifically, it’s just put more of that cash to use today by christening its fourth drugmaking subsidiary.
One year ago, in a paper in the journal Oncoimmunology, three cancer researchers wrote this: “After many years of best efforts and countless dollars, but unmet expectations, cancer vaccines have become a long-standing problem.”
Houston’s Fannin Innovation Studio is forming a new biotech startup to add to its portfolio called ACF Pharmaceuticals, along with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and a Michigan-based drug company.
ACF Pharmaceuticals, which will be based in Houston, will work closely with MD Anderson and Ann Arbor, MI-based Cayman Chemical on discovering and developing small molecule inhibitor to treat inflammation-induced cancers such as melanoma, as well as colon and pancreatic cancers.
There’s a lot of excitement these days about a type of cellular immunotherapy known as CAR-T, a method of modifying peoples’ immune cells to fight cancer. But you could also fill a book listing all the problems its makers will have to solve—how to test, manufacture, and even the define the nature of these cancer-killing cells—before the CAR-T story is a successful one.
New research at Tel Aviv University has unlocked the secret of how melanoma spreads and points the way to techniques that will prevent the disease from turning into a killer.
“Maybe in the future, people will be able to rub some substance on their skin as a prevention measure,” said TAU’s Dr. Carmit Levy.
