Bioteknikbolaget Curasight meddelade nyligen positiva prekliniska resultat för uTREAT vid behandling av icke-småcellig lungcancer. Resultaten visar att uTREAT effektivt hämmar tumörtillväxt. Dessa fynd kommer tätt inpå de senaste positiva prekliniska resultaten vid behandling av glioblastom, vilket stärker hypotesen att uTREAT inte är cancertypspecifikt, utan har potential att behandla ett bredare spektrum av solida tumörer.

Curasight är ett danskt bioteknikbolag som utvecklar en mer skonsam och effektiv metod för upptäckt och behandling av cancer. Bolagets mål är att på ett precist sätt upptäcka och klassificera vissa typer av cancer med diagnostikverktyget uTRACE och sedan ge riktad behandling med strålbehandlingen uTREAT, vilket minimerar bestrålningen av frisk vävnad. Tillsammans utgör dessa två teknologier Curasights uPAR-teranostiska plattform.

Prekliniskt proof of concept

I somras presenterade Curasight positiva prekliniska resultat med uTREAT i glioblastom. Nu tillkännager bolaget ytterligare prekliniska resultat som visar att uTREAT även är effektivt vid behandling av icke-småcellig lungcancer (NSCLC). Detta är den vanligaste formen av lungcancer, där cirka 70 000 patienter diagnostiseras årligen i USA och EU. Trots vissa framsteg i behandlingen av NSCLC är 5-årsöverlevnaden fortfarande cirka 28 procent. Denna statistik understryker behovet av mer effektiva behandlingar i kampen mot NSCLC.

Hämmar tumörtillväxt

Curasights prekliniska studie visade att uTREAT effektivt hämmade tumörtillväxt när det administrerades i en preklinisk musmodell av NSCLC. Dessa data visar inte bara potentialen för uTREAT som en radioligandterapi för behandling av NSCLC, utan stöder också vidareutveckling för denna indikation, i syfte att ge en mer skonsam och målinriktad behandling.

Vd kommenterar resultaten

BioStock kontaktade vd Ulrich Krasilnikoff för att få veta mer om de positiva prekliniska resultaten för uTREAT.

Can you provide more details about the positive preclinical results with uTREAT in treating non-small cell lung cancer?

– Certainly! We have now tested uTREAT in a preclinical model of human lung cancer. Such a model includes that human cancers are implanted in mice. Accordingly, although we call it animal studies it is actually human tumors that are treated and therefore such experiments are predictive of the effect in humans. In the study we performed, we demonstrated that one dose of uTREAT inhibited the growth of the lung tumors. This is a standard readout of efficacy of the treatments. Therefore, it you take these resent results together with the recently reported interim clinical data in the same types of tumors using uTRACE, that demonstrated that in essence all of these tumors expresses uPAR (they were positive on the uTRACE uPAR-PET scan), then we are more or less “ready to go” for testing uTREAT in lung cancer patients in the near future.

In the press release, you mention that the data confirms that the uPAR theranostic platform is “cancer specific but not cancer type specific”. Could you elaborate on this?

– After many years of research, we can state that all solid cancer tumors express a specific biomarker named urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR), which is a protein that is expressed in cancer cells and tumors, besides it is causing spreading to the surrounding tissue. At the same time, a high presence of uPAR in the tumor is also an expression of how aggressive the cancer is. Our diagnostic platform uTRACE and therapeutic platform uTREAT have been developed to target only the cancer cells that express the biomarker uPAR.

– We have now tested uTRACE in more than patients 400 patients in 9 different cancers (brain, prostate, head & neck, neuroendocrine tumors, lung, breast, colorectal, bladder and oral cancer), where all tumors in more than 94 per cent of the cases have expressed the biomarker uPAR. Thus, we can conclude that our theranostic uPAR platform, where we combine therapy (uTREAT) and diagnostics (uTRACE), is cancer specific, but not cancer type specific, as uPAR is expressed in all solid cancer tumors. And this is what makes the technology so incredibly interesting.

– In the phase II study in breast cancer with uTRACE, 48 women were PET-CT scanned with uTRACE, but 4 patients were also detected with a brain tumor only because the participated in our study. The patients didn’t know in the first place that they also had a brain tumor as they had no symptoms – but that emphasis that our uPAR theranostic platform is cancer specific but not cancer type specific.

How do you plan to utilise these findings in the clinical development program?

– We’ve already publicly stated that we will pursue a clinical program with uTREAT in glioblastoma and from a scientific rationale we are also looking at other cancers as we build our clinical pipeline. This week’s lung cancer data supports our belief that we can make a difference in a number of different cancers. We want to maximise our chances of showing the value of uTREAT in glioblastoma and select other indications, whilst balancing the use of our financial resources. We are still working out the details of our next clinical studies, and therefore cannot give more information at this time – but will do so in the near future.

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