On February 11, 2021 Monopar Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: MNPR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on developing proprietary therapeutics designed to extend life or improve the quality of life for cancer patients, reported the publication of a peer-reviewed study in the European Journal of Cancer which shows the potential utility of MNPR-101 as a uPAR imaging agent to improve surgical outcomes in bladder cancer (Press release, Monopar Therapeutics, FEB 11, 2021, View Source [SID1234574941]).

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Using Monopar’s proprietary humanized uPAR antibody, MNPR-101, a multimodal imaging probe was developed and tested in vivo in human bladder cancer models. The publication reports that high expression of uPAR in bladder cancer is localized at the tumor periphery, suggesting that using a fluorescent-conjugated MNPR-101 probe might allow surgeons to better visualize the borders of the tumor, potentially resulting in more complete tumor resection and thereby minimizing relapse. Similar approaches have been utilized successfully in the resection of other tumor types, such as breast cancer.

Bladder cancer is often treated with transurethral resection to remove cancerous tissue; however, recurrence can occur in up to 78% of patients within 5 years. Up to 40% of recurrent cases develop muscle invasive disease, which has a poor prognosis and requires complete removal of the bladder. Many patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer unfortunately go on to develop and succumb to metastatic disease.

"This novel MNPR-101 based imaging agent has promising utility in allowing surgeons to easily identify tumor margins during surgery," said Andrew Mazar, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Monopar and a co-author of the publication. "Given the specificity of uPAR expression in bladder cancer versus normal bladder tissue, and its high expression at the border of the tumor, we believe imaging uPAR using MNPR-101 targeting could improve surgical outcomes and potentially reduce recurrence of the disease."

"If confirmed in a clinical setting, an imaging probe based on MNPR-101 could result in a paradigm shift, altering how urologists survey and treat bladder cancer," said Cornelis Sier, PhD, member of the Image-Guided Surgery group at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and the principal investigator on the study.