25
Nov
2019
Tag: cancer
11
Nov
2019
Bionest
ESMO 2019: Translating Science into Better Cancer Care
The field of oncology has seen a number of significant advances in recent years. The considerable number of positive reports from the 2019 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) last month clearly reflected the meeting’s theme — the translation of scientific advances into better cancer care. AstraZeneca/Merck was one of stars...
7
Oct
2019
Bionest
New Approvals for Tumor-Agnostic Cancer Treatments — and the Questions They Raise
On August 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to Genentech/Roche’s Rozlytrek (entrectinib) for the treatment of adult and adolescent patients with solid tumors that exhibit neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) fusions and for whom there are no existing effective treatments. While NTRK fusions are rare, appearing in about 1% of solid...
12
Aug
2019
Bionest
New Excitement About Antibody-Drug Conjugates in Cancer
The ability to target malignant cells without damage to surrounding healthy ones has been a long-sought goal in cancer drug development. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have been investigated as one such solution aimed at delivering more targeted therapies. ADCs — an approach first envisioned by Paul Ehrlich in the early 20th century — combine the targeting...
15
Jul
2019
Bionest
News from ASCO: Part 2
In this post, we continue our report on some of the precision medicine approaches and initiatives we noted at ASCO. Neoantigens Revitalizing Cancer Vaccine Efforts Early efforts to create cancer vaccines aimed at increasing the immune system’s exposure to tumors, but the effectiveness of first-generation vaccines created by Dendreon and others was limited....
8
Jul
2019
Bionest
News from ASCO: Part 1
As we previously wrote, ASCO’s focus this year was on driving the benefits of precision medicine approaches in oncology to more patients. This was reflected in several ways in the news coming out of the conference, including: Progress Against Important, Difficult-to-Target Biomarkers The ASCO news was particularly good this year for patients with...
24
Jun
2019
Bionest
Liquid Biopsy Methods Showing Their Worth
The ability to detect and monitor mutational changes in tumors through a simple blood test has spurred considerable development within the field of liquid biopsy. While questions remain about the accuracy of such tests and the most relevant analyte to measure (i.e., circulating tumor DNA, cell free DNA, circulating tumor cells), liquid biopsy could offer...
30
May
2019
Bionest
Meet You at ASCO!
ASCO, the world’s largest meeting focused on cancer, is always one of the highlights of our calendar here at Bionest. This year is no exception and several of us are headed to Chicago for this year’s event, which is being held from May 31 to June 4. If you are going to ASCO, we’d love...
15
Apr
2019
Bionest
Bifunctional Antibodies: The Next Generation of Immuno-oncology Agents
Immuno-oncology agents, particularly checkpoint inhibitors, have moved to the forefront of cancer research and treatment in recent years. Indeed, the discovery that cancer could be treated by activating the immune system was honored with a Nobel Prize in 2018. But, as revolutionary as immuno-oncology drugs have been for the cancer field, many patients still do...
4
Mar
2019