Biocept said today it will partner with University of California San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center on a clinical validation study of the company’s PD-L1 assay for patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Under the collaboration, whose value was not disclosed, Sandip Patel, M.D., an assistant professor of UCSD…

Five features predict response to checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) chemotherapy across a wide range of cancers, research indicates. The findings, in Nature Genetics, could drive the personalization of cancer treatment by identifying people most likely to benefit from immunotherapy. They could also widen the use of immunotherapy, as several groups of…

Minimal residual disease (MRD) testing is not new. Pioneered by scattered research groups more than 30 years ago, it spread rapidly from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, when it was adopted as standard practice for the clinical monitoring of virtually all childhood and many adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)…

Enhertu (AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s trastuzumab deruxtecan) has become the first tumor-agnostic, FDA-approved, HER2-directed therapy. It is approved for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive (IHC 3+) solid tumors. Enhertu is an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) that consists of a HER2 monoclonal antibody attached to a number of topoisomerase…

One of the most competitive fields in pharma today involves antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), a market estimated to be worth almost $20B already. This week the FDA accepted the supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for ADC Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki) and granted it Priority Review. Enhertu is a HER2-directed ADC being…

Research led by the University of Milan shows that inhibition of the lysine demethylase enzyme (LSD1) could help improve treatment of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. The research, published in the journal Science Signaling, shows that inhibiting LSD1 blocks the excessive and damaging inflammatory response seen in patients with COVID, but…

New biotech company Droplet Biosciences has announced an $8 million seed investment that will be used to develop its novel platform to harvest and analyze lymph fluid samples from patients with cancer. “The lymphatic system regulates immune responses to pathogens and cancer, making lymph fluid a rich, proximal source of…

An off-the-shelf T-cell therapy has successfully treated drug-resistant viral infections in 95 percent of patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplants, according to final results from an open label Phase II trial. Patients that have received allogeneic bone marrow transplants have their immune system suppressed so that their body doesn’t reject…

Today the field of digital pathology can trace its roots to the end of the last century with the development of the “virtual microscope” by a combined team of researchers at the University of Maryland’s department of computer science and researchers in the department of pathology at Johns Hopkins University…

Elevation Oncology’s drug candidate seribantumab, currently being evaluated is a Phase II study, has received FDA Fast Track designation for tumor-agnostic  treatment of advanced cancers harboring an NRG1 gene fusion. Seribantumab is a fully human IgG2 monoclonal antibody that binds to human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3). HER3 is…

Immunotherapy unleashes the immune system to fight cancer, but it doesn’t work for all patients, and newly reported research may help to explain why. The study, headed by a team at Weill Cornell Medicine, indicates that the genetic program of T lymphocyte immune cells infiltrating malignant tumors, and the developmental…

A monoclonal antibody (MAB) developed by scientists at University College London (UCL) allows more effective delivery of targeted cancer treatments in mice by improving tumor vascular function. The findings, published in the journal MED, are the first to demonstrate that inhibiting the activity of LRG1, a protein produced in many tumorous…

BK virus (BKV)-specific T cells from healthy donors were safe and effective as an off-the-shelf therapy for BKV-associated hemorrhagic cystitis (BKV-HC), according to a Phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  BK virus-associated hemorrhagic cystitis is a painful complication and common after…

Diagnostics company Veracyte today announced it will acquire urological cancer test company developer Decipher Biosciences. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Dicipher’s testing portfolio leverages whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning algorithms to provide actionable decision support. It’s Decipher Prostate RP test is the only genomic molecular diagnostic test recommended…

The effect of oral hormone therapy on the metabolome of postmenopausal women is profound. Different hormone therapy regimens result in discordant metabolomic effects that impact the risk for coronary heart disease, reports a study led by Raji Balasubramanian, associate professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University…