On June 2, 2022 RenovoRx, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNXT), a biopharmaceutical company and innovator in targeted cancer therapy, reported that it will participate in the Gateway to Translation Webinar Series hosted by the University of Cambridge’s Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS) on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 at 1:00 PM ET (Press release, Renovorx, JUN 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234615460]). Dr. Ramtin Agah, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of RenovoRx, will present a seminar, "Localized Intra-arterial Drug Delivery for Treatment of Solid Tumors." To register for this seminar, click here.

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During his presentation, Dr. Agah will discuss current available treatment options for pancreatic tumors and why they can fall short of providing an effective solution for treating this deadly disease. He will also discuss how the RenovoRx Trans-Arterial Micro-Perfusion (RenovoTAMP) therapy platform re-envisions the treatment of pancreatic and other difficult-to-treat cancers, as well as the scientific rationale underlying its development. The seminar will be chaired by Prof. Saeb-Parsy, Professor of Transplantation at the University of Cambridge, and will be followed by a live Q&A session.

"It is an honor to present at the upcoming Gateway to Translation Seminar Series at the University of Cambridge. I would like to thank Prof. Saeb-Parsy, Cambridge’s Academy of Therapeutic Sciences (CATS) and the University for the opportunity to share RenovoRx’s progress in this vital area of research," said Dr. Agah. "The development of our therapy platform was the result of challenging the traditional boundaries in medicine – we identified a gap in the standard of care for pancreatic and similar difficult-to-treat cancers and designed the RenovoTAMP therapy platform, which is now in a Phase 3 clinical trial. Our Phase 1/2 and observational registry studies have demonstrated the potential for localized treatment of pancreatic cancer to decrease side effects typical of systemic chemotherapy, and importantly, improve patient survival. RenovoRx represents the mission of CATS and the potential for innovation through collaboration across medical disciplines and between academics and industry."

A recording of this presentation will be posted to the RenovoRx Website Events page when it becomes available.

On June 2, 2022 Kiyatec, a leader in functional precision oncology, reported that new clinical evidence of its proprietary ex vivo 3D cell culture technology use in high-grade glioma will be presented at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) 2022 (Press release, KIYATEC, JUN 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234615459]). As a first-time ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) presenter and exhibitor, Kiyatec will present its Clinical Services and Drug Development Services capabilities at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper)’s first-ever Innovation Hub at kiosk #IH01. The ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) meeting will be held in Chicago June 3-7, 2022.

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In this updated cohort of 42 patients with high grade glioma, 3D Predict Glioma prospectively predicted patient response to standard of care temozolomide (TMZ), regardless of MGMT methylation status. In a subgroup analysis of the 23 MGMT unmethylated patients, test-predicted responders had a relative median progression-free survival advantage of 5.9 months versus test-predicted non-responders (p = 0.0018). This data provides additional evidence of 3D Predict Glioma predictivity and its potential to provide additional information for glioma patient treatment options including clinical trial enrollment, alternative therapies indicated for use in glioma or combination therapy with TMZ.

Kiyatec Chief Executive Officer Matthew Gevaert, PhD, said, "This enhanced cohort adds to our body of clinical evidence demonstrating the predictive insights 3D Predict Glioma can provide to neuro-oncologists planning treatment for glioblastoma patients. With it, we’ve advanced our mission is to disrupt cancer care by accurately predicting patient-specific response and non-response before treatment begins."

High grade gliomas, including glioblastoma, are among the most aggressive brain cancers, with patients exhibiting highly variable treatment responses in both newly diagnosed and recurrent disease. TMZ with radiation therapy is the guideline-directed standard of care in the newly-diagnosed setting, which has remained relatively unchanged for over 15 years despite variable patient responses.

Kiyatec’s ex vivo KIYA-Predict pre-clinical platform and 3D Predict clinical assays are leading the functional precision oncology space with published, clinically-correlated evidence to prospectively predict glioma patient therapeutic response prior to initiation of therapy.

Clinical application of a functional 3D ex vivo test to predict therapeutic response in patients with HGG: A progression-free survival analysis

On June 2, 2022 GRAIL, LLC, a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured, reported a broad strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN) to develop and commercialize companion diagnostic (CDx) assays for use with AstraZeneca’s therapies (Press release, Grail Bio, JUN 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234615458]). The collaboration will initially focus on developing companion diagnostic tests to identify patients with high-risk, early-stage disease, with plans to embark on numerous studies across multiple indications over the next several years. The parties are additionally planning to use GRAIL’s technology to enable recruitment of patients with early-stage cancer for AstraZeneca’s clinical studies.

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"GRAIL has developed a novel approach to detect cancer signals in blood, regardless of whether or not the patient has clinical symptoms. We are excited to embark on this work with AstraZeneca to transform cancer outcomes through a broad, strategic collaboration," said Sir Harpal Kumar, President, Biopharma Business and Europe at GRAIL. "Through our collaboration, we hope to provide critical information to improve the identification of patients who may be eligible for clinical trials and change clinical paradigms for the treatment of early-stage cancers."

Across the projects within this collaboration, GRAIL will use its methylation platform to perform testing for patients enrolled in AstraZeneca’s clinical trials. GRAIL will seek regulatory approval in key markets for the liquid biopsy companion diagnostics.

Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President of Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said: "Identifying and treating cancer early is at the heart of this strategic collaboration. Combining GRAIL’s innovative blood-based methylation profiling platform with AstraZeneca’s leadership in Oncology, we hope to accelerate the adoption of circulating tumor DNA across clinical trials and make our cancer medicines available at an earlier stage of disease when there is greater potential to transform patient outcomes, and even cure."

GRAIL is developing its proprietary methylation platform for use in multiple post-diagnostic settings to identify patients at high risk of future cancer recurrence, detect the presence or absence of residual disease, and to inform treatment decisions, including identifying patients with cancer who may be eligible for neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapy. GRAIL’s technology platform is designed to optimize circulating tumor DNA testing to enable detection of early stage disease and minimal residual disease (MRD).

On June 2, 2022 Boehringer Ingelheim and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) reported a global licensing agreement under which Boehringer Ingelheim will obtain exclusive worldwide rights to research, develop and commercialize products based on a panel of innovative, tumor-specific antibodies from A*STAR (Press release, Boehringer Ingelheim, JUN 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234615457]). Boehringer Ingelheim aims to use these antibodies to direct therapeutic effector mechanisms such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and T-cell engagers exclusively to tumor cells, and to that end develop a range of highly targeted cancer treatments.

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"Boehringer Ingelheim believes that these promising antibodies in-licensed from A*STAR will help us advance potent therapeutic candidates against key molecular cancer targets," says Clive R. Wood, Senior Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Discovery Research at Boehringer Ingelheim and continues: "We look forward to developing these assets for a broad range of cancers with the goal to deliver breakthrough opportunities for patients."

Boehringer Ingelheim is pioneering a range of versatile therapeutic platforms in order to develop innovative medicines that target the tumor directly (tumor cell-directed therapies) or that enable the immune system to target the tumor (immune cell-targeted therapies). One tumor cell-directed modality is antibody drug conjugates, which allows for delivery of toxins directly into tumor cells. Another is T-cell engagers facilitating direct contact between T-cells and tumor cells, leading to T-cell-mediated killing of the tumor. Both technologies are directed towards markers on the surface of cancer cells, also known as antigens, in order to attack tumor cells but spare healthy tissues.

The innovative antibodies from A*STAR can potentially enable the development of safer, more efficacious therapies as they selectively bind to antigens that are highly expressed on tumor cells but are absent on normal healthy tissues.

Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for further research, preclinical and clinical development as well as commercialization of targeted cancer therapies using the antibodies from A*STAR. A*STAR may receive payments totalling >100 million EUR in upfront and success-based development and commercialization milestones.

The technology used to identify the unique A*STAR antibodies resulted from a multi-institutional collaboration in Singapore. A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and Institute of Bioengineering & Bioimaging (IBB) generated antibodies which exclusively target antigens that were initially identified from gastric cancer cells. Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), Singapore’s national platform for drug discovery and development hosted by A*STAR, then optimized the antibodies and confirmed their applicability to a range of other solid cancers. EDDC also demonstrated the utility of these antibodies in directing different therapeutic modalities selectively to cancer cells.

Professor Damian O’Connell, Chief Executive Officer of EDDC, says, "As Singapore’s national drug discovery and development platform, EDDC is proud to translate great science in Singapore into valuable assets that can enable the precise treatment of cancer. We believe that Boehringer Ingelheim, with its broad expertise and technologies, is the right partner to maximize the potential of these antibodies for the development of safer, more targeted therapies for cancer patients."

Professor Tan Sze Wee, Assistant Chief Executive (Enterprise) of A*STAR, says, "These antibodies were developed in Singapore through close collaboration across multiple institutions. There was also strong support by the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium. The agreement is testament to the best-in-class research taking place in Singapore. Cancer is a devastating disease, and we hope the fruits of our research can improve patient outcomes."

On June 2, 2022 Median Technologies (ALMDT) reported that it will be presenting an abstract at the 2022 ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, June 3-7, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL, USA (exhibition dates: June 4-6) (Press release, MEDIAN Technologies, JUN 2, 2022, View Source [SID1234615456]).

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Details of the session include:

Abstract # / Poster # – The adjudication rates between readers in Blinded Independent Central Review (BICR) of advanced esophageal cancer trials with or without immune checkpoint initiators as first-line therapy

Session: Gastrointestinal Cancer, Gastroesophageal, Pancreatic and Hepatobiliary
Date: Saturday June 4, 2022
Time: 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM CDT
Place: McCormick Place South, Hall A, Poster Board 27

The study analyzed a pool of advanced esophageal cancer trials with or without immune checkpoint inhibitors, which used RECIST 1.1, and documented the proportion of reader discrepancies, reader performance through monitoring procedures. 4 esophageal cancer BICR trials that included 1,875 patients (8,501 time-points) involving 14 radiologists were analyzed. Trials had an average adjudication rate of 45.28%. The discordances of baseline lesion selection (34.4% of discordances) and lesion measurement (40.3% of discordance) in follow up visits are the main reasons triggering adjudications in esophageal cancer central reading. Appropriate reader training and monitoring are solutions which can not only mitigate a large portion of the commonly encountered reading errors, but also help to reach more consensus on lesion selection and measurement between readers.

The Median’s clinical team will be available at booth #2098, Exhibit Hall A to discuss the abstract results from June 4 to June 6, 9:00 am-5:00 pm.

The ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting is the world’s premier oncology conference, organized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper), the largest oncology society in the world. Each year, the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) conference brings together more than 35,000 oncologists from all around the globe, and is attended by all medical, educational and industrial stakeholders involved in the field of oncology worldwide. More about the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting: View Source