On June 3, 2024 Sengenics Corporation LLC and Duke Health reported an ambitious collaboration to redefine metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treatment (Press release, Sengenics, JUN 3, 2024, View Source [SID1234644044]). This venture aims to explore the immune system’s response to immunotherapy, leveraging Sengenics’s state-of-the-art KREX technology to discover autoantibody biomarkers related to drug efficacy, resistance, and toxicity, thereby improving survival rates and quality of life for patients.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
mCRC remains a significant challenge in oncology, with a 5-year survival rate of 14% (Rumpold, 2020). Historically, the development of cancer immunotherapies has focused primarily on cellular immunity while neglecting the crucial functions of the humoral immune system. This joint effort will measure the humoral immune response to immunotherapy drugs, atezolizumab and bevacizumab, which have shown promise in clinical trials for mCRC treatment.
The project’s objective is to identify autoantibody biomarkers that can help stratify patients, ensuring they receive personalized and effective treatment regimens. It may also provide further insights into disease progression and mCRC subtypes.
"This research represents a significant step forward in the fight against metastatic colorectal cancer," said Professor Jonathan Blackburn, Chief Scientific Officer at Sengenics. "Autoantibodies not only offer a fresh perspective on treatment outcomes but can also provide biologically relevant and unique insights into disease that are not revealed by other ‘omics’ approaches."
Dr. Andrew Nixon, Professor of Medicine at Duke Health, added, "This collaboration underscores our commitment to enhancing patient care and health worldwide through innovative approaches. Our lab has focused on the development of circulating biomarkers for years, and we’re excited to better understand the roles that autoantibodies play in the development of metastatic colorectal cancer and therapeutic resistance."
The findings from this collaboration could herald a new era in cancer treatment, where precision medicine enables more accurate predictions of treatment outcomes, leading to more successful management of mCRC and potentially other cancers.