On September 18, 2020 BERG, a clinical-stage biotech that employs artificial intelligence (AI) to investigate diseases and develop innovative treatments, reported two major medical/clinical research developments on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) to be presented virtually at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) 2020 Congress taking place from September 19-21, 2020 (Press release, Berg, SEP 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234565365]).
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The first study entitled "Project Survival: High Fidelity Longitudinal Phenotypic and Multi-omic Characterization of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) for Biomarker Discovery", is the culmination of the largest existing high-fidelity characterization of pancreatic cancer from a phenotypic/adaptive multi-omic perspective. BERG’s Interrogative Biology platform was employed to identify causal relationships between existing pancreatic cancer therapies and changes in proteomic, metabolic and lipidomic responses to 253 treatment interventions and 211 progression events.
The research cohort included PDAC patients across different stages including early, locally advanced and metastatic to yield the most accurate characterization of the evolution of the disease. Throughout the course of the study, 470,000 clinical data points were gathered.
"Valid biomarkers will have a dramatically positive impact on patients suffering from pancreatic cancer," said Dr. A. James Moser, Co-Director of the Pancreas and Liver Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. "The Project Survival and BPM study data cross an important threshold on the road to personalized treatment, underscoring the vital role of comprehensive and sustained research collaborations in the fight against this dreadful cancer."
The second study, Validation of Response and Survival Biomarkers in a Phase 2 Trial of BPM 31510—IV Advanced Refractory Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC), identified two potential biomarkers predictive of response and overall survival in PDAC patients in response to BPM 31510-IV treatment.
The Interrogative Biology platform was applied to patient Buffy Coat (BC) samples being treated with BERG’s pancreatic drug cancer candidate, BPM 31510-IV, in a Phase 1 trial to identify novel markers. The biomarkers were then independently confirmed for utility between survival (OS), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PD) in a Phase 2 trial.
"PDAC is the most common type of pancreatic cancer and is an infamously devastating disease," said Dr. Niven R. Narain, BERG Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are fully committed to continue advancing these critical developments and leveraging our proprietary Interrogative Biology platform to identify therapeutic improvements for patients. We’re honored to present these findings at the ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper) 2020 Congress, and continue fostering partnerships with pioneers across the oncology field."