The phase II TBCRC 043 trial, led by researchers at Vanderbilt University, shows that adding atezolizumab to carboplatin chemotherapy significantly improves outcomes among patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and provides key information about immunotherapy response in these patients. The improved response with atezolizumab was evident regardless of PD-L1…

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) is an estimated $35B+ market already with multiple cancer indication approvals, but to date, neoadjuvant ICB therapy is only FDA-approved in non-small-cell (NSC) lung cancer and triple-negative breast cancer. This fact masks the huge potential, in both the clinic and research lab, of this class of…

Many pathologists have spent their entire careers examining slides of biopsies from cancer patients, honing in on their craft to spot a diagnosis. But these days, you can’t go to a precision medicine conference without hearing about how artificial intelligence (AI) threatens their work and the future of humans in…

ol.custom-marker { counter-reset: list;}ol.custom-marker > li { list-style: none; counter-increment: list;}ol.custom-marker.parens-after.decimal > li::marker { content: counter(list) “)\a0”;} By Michael N. Liebman Biology embraces the existence of a central dogma, i.e., DNA → RNA → protein, and drug development has embraced its own, i.e., disease → target → drug, but both…

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a new treatment method using a nanocapsule to deliver the enzyme lactate oxidase into solid tumors, improving anti-tumoral immune response and immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy efficacy.Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, scientists are targeting lactate—a chemical produced by cancer cells…

One of the first things we learn when studying biology is that amino acids are building blocks of the cell. These simple organic compounds join together to form proteins that are essential for the regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. Proteomics–the large-scale study of proteins–has been trying to understand…

The All of Us project aims to enroll a million volunteers, as do the Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program and the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative. U.K. Biobank already has 500,000 participants and has made the entire genomes of 200,000 people available to scientists—the world’s largest single release of whole-genome…

Cancer cells that resist chemotherapy and become “persisters” remain a daunting clinical challenge. They appear to attain and retain their staying power largely through nongenetic mechanisms, which remain poorly defined. To understand these mechanisms better, scientists at the Curie Institute in Paris have studied cancer cells that occur in triple-negative…

“We’re all about overwhelming force and narrow markets,” OncoCyte president and CEO Ron (Ronnie) Andrews says of the molecular diagnostics developer he has helmed since July 2019, “because we really can’t afford to play in multiple markets as a small company.” OncoCyte has demonstrated some of that proverbial firepower and…

Predicine said it will partner with Suzhou Kintor Pharmaceuticals to accelerate the speed and efficiency of biomarker-driven trials for Kintor’s novel oncology drugs, as well as develop companion diagnostics for FDA and China FDA approvals. Kintor will use Predicine’s expertise in genomics and molecular information to advance the development of…

A University of California, San Diego (UCSD)-led research team has discovered that a small subset of diverse solid tumor ]types harbour amplifications in the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PDL1) gene, a finding that could help to identify additional cancer patients who will respond to treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors…

Precision Therapeutics said today it agreed to acquire all shares of Helomics, up from its current 25% stake, in a deal designed to catapult the buyer into leadership in precision oncology. Minneapolis-based Precision Therapeutics has signed a letter of intent to buy the remaining Helomics shares it did not currently…

Cancer metastasis causes 90% of all cancer-related deaths. Scientists agree that the metastases occur when cancer cells are shed from the primary tumor, carried by the peripheral blood, and deposited at a distal site to create a new colony. An ability to etect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or cell-free cancer…

In a recent study, diagnostic mammography results varied across racial and ethnic groups, with the rate of diagnostic accuracy highest in non‐Hispanic white women and lowest in Hispanic women. The work was a multi-institutional study led by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers. “Even though we found some differences between…