| | | |   | It’s an ASCO-ful Readout today! With three reporters on the ground in Chicago, we’ve got some potentially paradigm-shifting breast and rectal cancer news.
- Meghana | | | Stunning early immunotherapy results for rectal cancer A GSK cancer drug, Jemperli, made a locally advanced rectal cancer shrink until it was undetectable in 14 patients. The results are unprecedented: Just six months of the immunotherapy elicited complete responses that spared each patient radiation, chemotherapy, and intensive surgery. The study is very small — just 12 people — and involved only patients whose cancers have a rare genetic signature called mismatch repair deficiency. Antibody drugs like Keytruda and Jemperli, have been used to target this condition, but typically these therapies have been reserved for later-stage cancers. Though it’s far too early to tell, this study shows that these immunotherapies could perhaps cure earlier-stage cancers. “What’s really remarkable is this is the first time I know of in solid tumor oncology where we’ve had a 100% complete response, and we’ve completely omitted the normal standard of care,” one of study’s lead doctors said. Read more. | Enhertu prolonged life in advanced breast cancer In women with advanced breast cancer, antibody-drug conjugate Enhertu cut the rate of death by a third, new data show. If regulators sanction the drug, made by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, the number of patients eligible to receive the life-extending drug could be tripled. In fact, oncologists say the results could shift how breast cancer is treated in general. The study included 557 patients, all of whom would have been classified as HER2 negative. Instead, they had low levels of the protein on the surface of their cancer cells, classifying them as HER2-low — which was enough to allow Enhertu to drop its chemotherapy payload and kill tumor cells. “There’s a significant number of patients with HER2-low disease who we never really classified that way because we didn’t have a clinical reason to,” one breast cancer expert said. “Now we’re going to have a reason to go back and classify their HER2 status in a whole different light. Right now, this drug compared to chemotherapy in these HER2-low patients works better." Read more. | Claim your free pass: Breakthrough 2022 virtual summit Join experts in biotech, operations, and venture financing on June 15 at Breakthrough 2022, the virtual summit for emerging and growth-stage Life Sciences companies. Speakers include practitioners and thought leaders from IDC, GSK, Nimbus, Third Rock Ventures, among many others. Registration is completely free, compliments of Egnyte for Life Sciences. Claim your free pass. | A trio of impactful but early CAR-T readouts Three companies presented promising next-gen CAR-T results for multiple myeloma. Though the data are only from Phase 1 studies, each offered an improvement over the existing, approved bespoke cell therapies. The companies, Arcellx, OriCell, and Gracell, each had “really impressive results,” one CAR-T expert not involved in the studies said. Take Gracell: It showed a 100% response rate in 28 patients after a median of 6.3 months — with no detectable cancer in nearly all the patients. And, notably, that company worked on optimizing the typically onerous process of making CAR-Ts. The China-based biotech says it’s shrunken the manufacturing process from multiple weeks to overnight. Read more. | A final verdict on Roche’s anti-TIGIT drug? Tiragolumab, an anti-TIGIT immunotherapy from Roche, seems to be completely ineffective in treating lung cancer, new Phase 3 data show. When combined with PD-L1 drug Tecentriq and chemotherapy, tiragolumab performed worse than the control arm — elevating the risk of tumors progressing by 11%. The failure here fuels uncertainty about the future of the experimental drug. The results aren't a complete surprise: Roche laid out the trial’s poor performance back in March. But tiragloumab is the most important cancer drug in Roche’s pipeline, and these results could shed some light on how anti-TIGIT checkpoint inhibitors from other companies ultimately perform. Read more. | More reads - In study, Gilead’s Trodelvy shows modest benefit in breast cancer patients. STAT
- The FDA’s Pazdur on accelerated approval, single-arm studies, and his own future. STAT
- If Roe is overturned, the ripples could affect IVF and genetic testing of embyros, experts warn. STAT
| Thanks for reading! Until tomorrow,  | | | |
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