Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by mft_ on Sunday February 10, 2019 @07:54AM
(#19127594)
I'm hoping here that HN isn't going to be too taken in by a good PR strategy from the biotechs who are supporting the clinical trials here (Seattle Genetics and Genmab - see here: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03485209)
I mean, it's interesting data, and any step forwards in treating cancers (especially solid tumours) is great... but this isn't especially novel. Toxin-bearing antibodies like this have been worked on now for years; indeed, there are examples which have successfully made it all the way through large phase III trials and onto the market, which takes many years.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by true_religion on Sunday February 10, 2019 @09:43AM
(#19127929)
Not novel isn't the same thing as not news. As a tech site, we read lots of articles about new JavaScript libraries reimplementing techniques discovered in the 60s.
Can we not have one breathless article about an incremental improvement in cancer drugs without everyone in the know scoffing about how it is not revolutionary?
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by cat199 on Sunday February 10, 2019 @10:33AM
(#19128129)
> Can we not have one breathless article about an incremental improvement in cancer drugs without everyone in the know scoffing about how it is not revolutionary?
this will probably happen about the same time that the headlines stop presenting incremental things as revolutionary..
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by a_imho on Sunday February 10, 2019 @06:13AM
(#19127330)
The price has not yet been set. This will be worked out based on the success of the drug, the number of cancers it treats and what individual markets can bear.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by merpnderp on Sunday February 10, 2019 @10:31AM
(#19128117)
I’ve always assumed the vast amount of marketing is the armies of incredibly high paid door to door salesmen who always seem to be visiting your doctor with some new pitch to reward them for prescribing their pet drug.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by clort on Sunday February 10, 2019 @05:40AM
(#19127236)
Its an interesting article.. I have questions!
This antibody binds to 'tissue factor' which are present at high levels on the surface of many cancer cells. Are these tissue factor present in significant proportions on other types of cell? (Reading later it suggests that side effects can include nose bleeds which I wonder if that means that nasal tissue also contains this)
The figures that they show; obviously it is a small cohort anyway and these people were otherwise considered untreatable but do we know what percentage of (eg) ovarian cancer would otherwise find that their tumors were either shrinking or had stopped growing? It would be important to compare that against the 14% they saw..
The mechanism of action is good, I am not able to say if it is novel (the name they use for the technique relates to an incident ~4000 years ago); do we have leads on other particular circumstances which may be useful to do this? (eg prostate cancer was not affected.. presumably because it has no tissue factor on its surface? could it identifiable by any other means?)
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by twic on Sunday February 10, 2019 @07:02AM
(#19127457)
> This antibody binds to 'tissue factor' which are present at high levels on the surface of many cancer cells. Are these tissue factor present in significant proportions on other types of cell?
Tissue factor is expressed on the surface of the cells adjacent to blood vessels, so it's all over the body.
Tissue factor's normal role is to trigger blood coagulation - it reacts with factors in the blood to trigger a coagulation cascade. There is a waterproof layer of endothelial cells between the adjacent TF-bearing cells and the blood itself, so this only happens when a blood vessel is breached by mechanical damage, letting blood come into contact with TF - the resulting coagulation seals the breach. It's a cool system! Although a bit complicated:
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by anonymfus on Sunday February 10, 2019 @06:15AM
(#19127339)
The title ("‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six different forms of cancer") mislead me into imaging a cocktail of cancer cells as a treatment.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by DrScump on Sunday February 10, 2019 @04:41AM
(#19127082)
It's interesting that they mention specifically cervical cancer and head/neck cancers as some of the more successfully treated tumors, given that HPV is now thought to be a frequent cause of both.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by rfinney on Sunday February 10, 2019 @09:15AM
(#19127832)
7 February 2019 Lancet paper on Tisotumab vedotin trial here :
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2... (entitled: "Tisotumab vedotin in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumours (InnovaTV 201): a first-in-human, multicentre, phase 1–2 trial")
Tisotumab vedotin is a first-in-human antibody–drug conjugate that is directed against tissue factor expressed on the cell surface of tumour cells to deliver a clinically validated toxic payload to tumours. [...]
Tisotumab vedotin is comprised of a fully human monoclonal antibody specific for tissue factor conjugated to the microtubule-disrupting agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) via a protease-cleavable valine-citrulline linker. .... The study was funded by Danish and US biotech companies Genmab and Seattle Genetics
Our [antibody-drug conjugate] technology combines the specificity of monoclonal antibodies, innovative linker systems, and the cell killing power of potent cytotoxic agents to treat cancer.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by projektfu on Sunday February 10, 2019 @07:11AM
(#19127483)
Success rates in cancer are usually broken down by type of response (complete, partial, no growth, no response) and stage. It would have been helpful for the article to say what stage was being treated and compare the response rates in that stage to the best available treatment. For some cancers, 80-100% rate of complete response is currently achievable. Some are at 0%.
Re:‘Trojan horse’ drug treated British patients with six dif...
by alkonaut on Sunday February 10, 2019 @06:56AM
(#19127442)
The site seems deliberately designed to break safari when using a built in iOS content blockers. It’s like it reloads itself until the ads have loaded, making it impossible to scroll. Does anyone else see this? Is this a thing now?
I mean, it's interesting data, and any step forwards in treating cancers (especially solid tumours) is great... but this isn't especially novel. Toxin-bearing antibodies like this have been worked on now for years; indeed, there are examples which have successfully made it all the way through large phase III trials and onto the market, which takes many years.
e.g. https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/2859 and https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/9537/smpc
Can we not have one breathless article about an incremental improvement in cancer drugs without everyone in the know scoffing about how it is not revolutionary?
this will probably happen about the same time that the headlines stop presenting incremental things as revolutionary..
Why is it not based on the cost of the treatment?
“A study has placed the amount spent on drug marketing at 2-19 times that on drug research”
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03485209
This antibody binds to 'tissue factor' which are present at high levels on the surface of many cancer cells. Are these tissue factor present in significant proportions on other types of cell? (Reading later it suggests that side effects can include nose bleeds which I wonder if that means that nasal tissue also contains this)
The figures that they show; obviously it is a small cohort anyway and these people were otherwise considered untreatable but do we know what percentage of (eg) ovarian cancer would otherwise find that their tumors were either shrinking or had stopped growing? It would be important to compare that against the 14% they saw..
The mechanism of action is good, I am not able to say if it is novel (the name they use for the technique relates to an incident ~4000 years ago); do we have leads on other particular circumstances which may be useful to do this? (eg prostate cancer was not affected.. presumably because it has no tissue factor on its surface? could it identifiable by any other means?)
Tissue factor is expressed on the surface of the cells adjacent to blood vessels, so it's all over the body.
Tissue factor's normal role is to trigger blood coagulation - it reacts with factors in the blood to trigger a coagulation cascade. There is a waterproof layer of endothelial cells between the adjacent TF-bearing cells and the blood itself, so this only happens when a blood vessel is breached by mechanical damage, letting blood come into contact with TF - the resulting coagulation seals the breach. It's a cool system! Although a bit complicated:
https://diapharma.com/coagulation/
I had no idea there was a connection between coagulation and cancer, but apparently there is - specifically, it's involved in metastasis:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3151023/
Tisotumab vedotin is a first-in-human antibody–drug conjugate that is directed against tissue factor expressed on the cell surface of tumour cells to deliver a clinically validated toxic payload to tumours. [...] Tisotumab vedotin is comprised of a fully human monoclonal antibody specific for tissue factor conjugated to the microtubule-disrupting agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) via a protease-cleavable valine-citrulline linker. .... The study was funded by Danish and US biotech companies Genmab and Seattle Genetics
This Lancet paper references this 2014 Cancer Research paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24371232?dopt=Abstract (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/74/4/1214.long) : "An Antibody–Drug Conjugate That Targets Tissue Factor Exhibits Potent Therapeutic Activity against a Broad Range of Solid Tumors"
Seattle Genetics page on Tisotumab Vedotin : http://www.seattlegenetics.com/pipeline/tisotumab-vedotin
Our [antibody-drug conjugate] technology combines the specificity of monoclonal antibodies, innovative linker systems, and the cell killing power of potent cytotoxic agents to treat cancer.
Interestingly, Seattle Genetics stock is down 12% on Friday: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SGEN ("cuz earnings"). Genmab was up 0.69% : https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GEN.CO
Seems the 25% is up from a perceived 0% possible success rate.
This sort of dickery just means we'll see a rise in NoScript users, or that functionality becoming baked in.