On July 28, 2021 Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNCR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing engineered monoclonal antibodies and cytokines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, reported that it will release second quarter 2021 financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, August 4, 2021 (Press release, Xencor, JUL 28, 2021, View Source [SID1234585316]).

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Xencor management will host a webcast and conference call the same day at 4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT) to discuss the financial results and provide a corporate update.

The live call may be accessed by dialing (877) 359-9508 for domestic callers or (224) 357-2393 for international callers and referencing conference ID number 1389708. A live webcast of the conference call will be available under "Events & Presentations" in the Investors section of the Company’s website located at www.xencor.com. The webcast will be archived on the company website for 30 days.

On July 28, 2021 Tempus, a leader in artificial intelligence and precision medicine, reported publication of a study outlining the precision medicine applications for its patient-derived tumor organoid (TO) platform (Press release, Tempus, JUL 28, 2021, View Source [SID1234585315]). The study demonstrates how the platform has the potential to accelerate the application of patient derived biological models (organoids) in precision oncology and targeted therapeutic profiling programs through its use of molecular data and AI-based neural network development. Given the scale of Tempus’ organoid program, it now houses one of the largest repositories of these models in the world.

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Organoids can be used to model tumor genomes and transcriptomes from a range of cancer types, yet until now, their utilization has been limited by a lack of scalable and reproducible methods for development and therapeutic profiling. The study, published in Cell Reports, analyzed Tempus’ platform of over 1,000 tumor organoid cultures, from patients whose tumors represent the most common subtypes of carcinoma in North America, to evaluate clinical and molecular determinants of organoid culture success, minimal growth factor dependencies by tissue of origin, and molecular concordance between organoids and source tumors. As organoids have the potential to recreate a patient’s own tumor outside their body, this category of biological models has the potential to meaningfully impact both drug discovery and patient care.

Overall, the Tempus organoids accurately represented patients’ tumor DNA mutational profiles, RNA expression, and structural genomic features. Additionally, drug screens under minimal media conditions uncovered clinically relevant therapeutic sensitivities. This finding suggests that future organoid studies can be conducted with less complex media formulations, possibly resulting in reductions in time, cost, user error, and methodological variation. Lastly, the study presents a neural network-based, universal solid tumor therapeutic profiling assay predicting organoid viability from simple light microscopy, reducing cost and time in high-throughput screening.

"Leveraging organoids has the potential to revolutionize personalized oncology and benefit patients," said Dr. Joel Dudley, Chief Scientific Officer at Tempus. "Tempus’ work in this field will help researchers access technology-enabled, industrial-grade screening of patient-derived organoids at scale, which we believe will significantly advance both diagnostic and drug discovery efforts."

On July 28, 2021 BostonGene Corporation, a biomedical software company committed to defining optimal precision medicine-based therapies for cancer patients, reported the online publication of the manuscript, "Single-cell Spatial Proteomic Revelations on the Multiparametric MRI Heterogeneity of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer" in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) (Press release, BostonGene, JUL 28, 2021, View Source [SID1234585314]). The study, led by oncologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis – in collaboration with BostonGene – identified distinct molecular, cellular, and structural characteristics associated with MRI-visible clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa).

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Multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) has increased the detection rate and has improved the prediction rate of prostate cancer; however, mpMRI is unable to detect almost 15% of csPCa and often misidentifies healthy patients as csPCa. To uncover the mechanisms underlying MRI visibility in csPCa, the group performed the first integrated multi-omics analysis of clinically matched mpMRI-invisible and -visible PCa. Tumor tissues from clinically matched patients with mpMRI-invisible and mpMRI-visible csPCa who underwent radical prostatectomy were evaluated. In this collaborative study, BostonGene performed integrated analysis of multiplex immunofluorescence single-cell spatial imaging and gene expression profiling with its artificial intelligence-based analytic algorithms to examine the tumor and surrounding microenvironment. Expression profiling identified a stromal enrichment signature in mpMRI-invisible PCa that correlated with better PCa clinical outcomes. Interestingly, mpMRI-invisible tumors displayed molecular, cellular, and structural features more akin to normal prostate tissue, which may render these tumors undetectable by MRI imaging.

"This AI-based analytical approach could distinctly identify the molecular and cellular composition of tumor tissue. Integrated multi-omics analysis in conjunction with mpMRI shows promise for the diagnosis and personalization of treatment options for patients with clinically significant prostate cancer," said Russell K. Pachynski, MD, lead study author and genitourinary medical oncologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and its affiliated Siteman Cancer Center.

"The results of our collaboration with Washington University and Siteman Cancer Center validate the use of multiplexed immune-fluorescent microscopy and gene expression profiling coupled with cutting-edge analytics to solve clinical unmet needs," said Nathan Fowler, MD, Chief Medical Officer at BostonGene. "Our findings created an opportunity to improve PCa patient outcomes."

On July 28, 2021 Guided Therapeutics, Inc. (OTCQB: GTHP), the maker of the LuViva Advanced Cervical Scan, based on its patented biophotonic technology,reported that an independent study of 166 women in Hungary showed that LuViva detected 20% more cervical precancer and cancer than the HPV test (Press release, Guided Therapeutics, JUL 28, 2021, View Source [SID1234585312]). Specifically, LuViva had a very high sensitivity of 94%, detecting disease in 48 of 51 women with biopsy results of precancer or cancer, compared with 40 detected by HPV for the same group of 51 women. In addition, the confidence that a negative LuViva result truly indicated no significant disease (negative predictive value) was 90% for LuViva and 81% for HPV. The confidence that a positive test result truly indicated presence of disease (positive predictive value) was about the same for both LuViva (35%) and HPV (37%). According to new U.S. guidelines, women with this high a likelihood of cervical disease or higher need to either have tissue removed for a definitive diagnosis or consider immediate treatment. In contrast to HPV testing, LuViva does not require a costly and time-consuming lab infrastructure and provides results immediately as opposed to the delay of several days for lab tests such as the Pap or HPV. The study was conducted by a team led by Prof. Dr. Zoltan Hernadi at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Debrecen, Hungary.

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As published in the Hungarian medical journal Orvosi Hetilap, Prof. Hernadi and his team concluded that the LuViva test "is another opportunity to improve the quality of our Hungarian cervical screening system. Highlights of the test are high sensitivity and negative predictive value." LuViva has earned the CE Mark and is working with its European manufacturing and distribution partner Newmars Technologies to launch the product this year in Central and Eastern Europe and next year in Russia.

According to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer is ranked as the fourth most common type of cancer in women worldwide, with approximately 700,000 cases reported annually. Because cervical cancer often is detected too late, it is one of the leading causes of cancer-related female death in developing countries, with 311,000 women lost each year.

On July 28, 2021 PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader committed to innovating for a healthier world, reported four new ready-to-use AlphaLISA KRAS kits, designed to help scientists better understand complex KRAS protein structures and mutations so they can more easily, quickly, and precisely identify potential new therapeutic candidates for a wide range of prevalent cancers (Press release, PerkinElmer, JUL 28, 2021, View Source [SID1234585311]). Researchers will now be able to choose between PerkinElmer’s HTRF or AlphaLISA assays to use the best methods for their individual labs.

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The Company’s AlphaLISA and HTRF kits are the first ready-to-use homogenous assays for KRAS/SOS1 inhibition analysis on the market. Prior to these offerings, labs looking to measure this inhibition in a no-wash format needed to develop their own assays, source their own proteins, and optimize assay conditions, which can be time and resource consuming. PerkinElmer’s AlphaLISA and HTRF kits streamline workflows by offering fully validated kits to identify novel KRAS inhibitors in a no-wash format with no optimization necessary, and each kit comes with recombinant proteins, detection reagents, and assay buffers.

"KRAS mutations are present in approximately 25% of tumors, making them one of the most common gene mutations linked to cancer," said Alan Fletcher, senior vice president of life sciences and technology, PerkinElmer. "Because KRAS mutations are found in numerous types of cancer, from lung to colorectal to pancreatic cancers, it’s a prime drug target. However, due to its complex protein structure, it’s been quite difficult to research for many years. We’re proud to help advance opportunities for researchers to learn more about KRAS mutations in the hopes of providing better treatment opportunities by bringing our AlphaLISA kits to market in this critical research space."

The addition of these assays further propels PerkinElmer’s ability to provide end-to-end solutions for oncology researchers, which includes early stage drug discovery with assays, cell lines, microplates and plate readers, as well as later stage research with high-content screening, image analysis and management, automated liquid handling, and more. Learn more about PerkinElmer’s cancer research solutions for genomics, cell-based assays, cellular imaging, in vivo imaging, and informatics here.

Learn more about the new AlphaLISA KRAS assay kits here and about the Company’s drug discovery technologies here.