LungBlog

Clarient, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRT), a premier technology and services resource for pathologists, oncologists and the pharmaceutical industry, today announced that data from a new study suggest that the Clarient Insight® Dx Pulmotax™ assay may effectively predict which lung cancer patients will respond favorably to chemotherapy. The study, titled “TLE3 expression is predictive of response to chemotherapy in NSCLC,” included 368 samples from carcinoma patients.  The majority of advanced-stage patients who were treated with chemotherapy received a treatment regimen containing a taxane class agent.

Pulmotax is a single antibody immunohistochemistry test created to detect the expression of TLE3 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Prior data have linked TLE3 expression specifically to response to taxane therapy in breast and ovarian carcinoma patients. The study was presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) in Washington, D.C. by Douglas T. Ross, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Clarient.

MM-121, Merrimack’s lead oncology therapeutic candidate, is an antibody designed to block signaling of ErbB3. This is the first of multiple trials that Merrimack and sanofi-aventis expect to initiate in 2010 as part of a broad Phase 2 clinical development program for MM-121.

Cambridge, Mass. (PRWEB) February 22, 2010 — Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the first patient has received an initial dose in a Phase 1/2 clinical study combining MM-121 with Tarceva® (erlotinib) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This is the first of multiple trials that Merrimack and sanofi-aventis expect to initiate in 2010 as part of a broad Phase 2 clinical development program for MM-121.

There are so many different types of cancer drugs coming into the clinic that it can sometimes be hard to keep up.  Among the most exciting additions in the last decade are monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)  – Herceptin and rituximab are two examples.

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (OTCBB: IMUC), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing immune based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers, announced today the issuance of a Japanese patent relating to the company’s monoclonal antibody therapeutics. Patent No. 4287147, entitled “Monoclonal Antibodies and Cell Surface Antigens for the Detection and Treatment of Small Cell Lung Cancer,” covers the use of IMUC’s proprietary antibodies in diagnosing and treating patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) using the company’s lead antibody product candidate, ICT-109. This latest issuance builds on IMUC’s existing patent portfolio in U.S. and international jurisdictions for both the detection and treatment of multiple types of cancer.

Clinical studies of non-small cell lung cancer, which is the most frequent type of lung cancer, have shown so far that only part of the patients treated with cetuximab benefit from the treatment. Therefore, doctors are urgently searching for biomarkers which reliably predict responsiveness to the antibody therapy.

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. a biotechnology company, announced the issuance of two separate U.S. patents relating to the company‘s monoclonal antibody therapeutics. Patents No. 7,435,415 and No. 7,435,554 are both entitled “Monoclonal Antibodies and Cell Surface Antigens for the Detection and Treatment of Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).“ The inventions cover methods for the detection of certain specific epitopes in the SCLC patient and for treating those patients with the company‘s monoclonal antibodies in a targeted manner. IMUC‘s lead monoclonal antibody product candidate, ICT-109, which has demonstrated encouraging preliminary data in pre-clinical studies, is projected by IMUC to enter clinical trials in 2010 for SCLC and pancreatic cancer indications.

Pfizer announced today that important study results involving the company‘s leading anticancer agent, SUTENT^®(sunitinib malate), as well as data examining an investigational agent, CP-751,871, will be presented at the 33^rd European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Stockholm, 12-16 September 2008.

Researchers will present results of several analyses evaluating the cost effectiveness of SUTENT^® as first-line therapy in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), as well as updated data from a pivotal Phase III trial in mRCC. In addition, researchers will present updated results for CP-751,871, a novel anti-IGF-1R antibody, and the first in its class to initiate Phase III trials in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Up to now, monoclonal antibodies have only lived up to their expectations in the chemotherapeutic fight against cancer to a limited extent. Although these therapies are effective in prolonging the lives of patients who have types of cancer with a small chance of survival, for example advanced lung cancer, they cannot cure them. One of the main problems with current antibody chemotherapies is that the medicines lack selectivity. The active ingredients become distributed throughout the whole body and also attack healthy tissues in the liver, lungs or heart as well as the actual tumour that is to be treated.

This group of novel targets offers the opportunity for advancing the development of antibody biotherapeutics for a wide range of oncologic diseases, such as ovarian cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, multiple myeloma, acute and chronic leukemia and Non Hodgkin lymphoma. All of the new targets are membrane bound molecules which have been shown to display differential RNA expression in various tumor vs. healthy samples. In addition, a number of them are splice variant molecules, the existence of which had initially been predicted by the Company‘s LEADS platform. This class of molecules would be particularly difficult to find utilizing traditional discovery methodologies.

A biotech company, founded by researchers from the University of Munich, has developed a fascinating way to make the immune system fight cancer.

On Thursday, Micromet Inc. announced that its experimental drug, MT103, had impressive results in a test upon seven Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients. All of them had failed at least three conventional treatments, but showed signs of recovery after receiving doses of a two-headed antibody.