REG - Advanced Oncotherapy - Study shows the potential superiority of LIGHT

Advanced OncotherapyAnnouncement

12/03/2021 07:00

RNS Number : 0283S
  
Advanced Oncotherapy PLC
  
12 March 2021
  
 

12 March 2021
 
ADVANCED ONCOTHERAPY PLC
 
("Advanced Oncotherapy" or the "Company")
 
New study shows the potential superiority of LIGHT for resistant cancers 
 
Advanced Oncotherapy (AIM: AVO), the developer of next-generation proton therapy systems for cancer treatment called LIGHT systems (LIGHT), today announces that it has demonstrated the potential capability and superiority of LIGHT in "biologically enhanced particle therapy1" to treat resistant cancers, which are responsible for most relapses and one of the major causes of death in cancer2.
 
The Company's findings build on research at the Mayo Clinic which demonstrated the benefits of combining proton therapy with targeted small molecule damage repair inhibitors. In a study recently published in the American Association for Cancer Research's journal Cancer Research1, the Mayo Clinic demonstrated that cancer cells with defects in their DNA repair pathways - such as resistant cancers - are more effectively killed using proton therapy combined with a damage repair inhibitor3. 
 
The developers at the Mayo Clinic have named this new process for "biologically enhanced particle therapy", LEAP. The ability to deliver a LEAP treatment is predicated on the ability of the proton therapy system to deposit intense radiation in a microscopic area of the tumour, such as the DNA molecules. The amount of energy deposited per length at a micrometer level - also called dLET - is therefore an important parameter for optimising treatment plans and treating resistant cancers.
 
The Board of Directors and the Medical Advisory Board of Advanced Oncotherapy believe that LEAP is a significant step forward in the application of proton therapy in the treatment of cancers. Subsequently, the Company has demonstrated the capability of LIGHT to bring the new LEAP treatment to patients with resistant cancers4. To do so, the Company used data generated by LIGHT and its proprietary treatment planning system to assess the LEAP effect in a patient with triple negative breast cancer5 for a smaller target partial breast irradiation and whole breast irradiation. The three major conclusions of this study are as follows:
 
·      dLET is currently not a parameter used in conventional treatment plan systems. However, the proprietary treatment planning system of LIGHT has been tailor-made to take into account dLET, hence offering a more optimised LEAP treatment.
 
·      The maximum achieved dLET values observed with LIGHT within the target for both of the cases considered are significantly higher compared to cyclotron systems which are representative of legacy proton systems.
 
·      In comparison to cyclotron systems, the resulting LIGHT LEAP plans indicate greater conformity.
 
These results support the superior features of LIGHT, namely the ability to optimise the treatment plan such that the highly dense ionisation occurs at the tumour site and deliver a significantly smaller proton beam in comparison to legacy proton therapy systems. This is expected to pave the way for treating resistant cancers in a more effective way. 
 
Jonathan Farr, Chief Clinical Officer at Advanced Oncotherapy, said:
 
"Innovation in cancer is occurring at a pace never seen before, which has resulted in many technological breakthroughs, as evidenced with the development of FLASH, a particularly exciting field which holds great promises for treating patients in one single visit. Following the ground-breaking results published by the Mayo Clinic, LEAP represents another paradigm shift in cancer treatment. This highlights the role of proton therapy in combination with specific DNA repair inhibitors as a technology-enabler for personalised treatment based on the patient's tumour biology. 
 
"Our LIGHT system, due to its smaller beam size compared to legacy systems and its ability to deposit a greater level of radiation damage in a micro-target volume, is ideally suited to accelerate this trend and to further contribute to the development of personalised medicines. This is exciting news for patients with resistant cancers."
 
 
- ENDS -
 
Notes for editors
 
1 - Inhibition of ATM induces hypersensitivity to proton irradiation by upregulating toxic end joining; Qin Zhou, Michelle E. Howard, Xinyi Tu, Qian Zhu, Janet M. Denbeigh, Nicholas B. Remmes, Michael G. Herman, Chris J. Beltran, Jian Yuan, Patricia T. Greipp, Judy C. Boughey, Liewei Wang, Neil Johnson, Matthew P. Goetz, Jann N. Sarkaria, Zhenkun Lou and Robert W. Mutter; Cancer Res February 17 2021 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-2960
 
2 - For example, 30%-55% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) relapse and die from the disease afterwards (European Respiratory Journal 2016 47: 374-378; DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01490-2015). The 50%-70% of ovarian adenocarcinomas reoccur within 1 year after surgery and associated chemotherapy (Ushijima K. (2010). Treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer-at first relapse. Journal of oncology, 2010, 497429. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/497429).
 
3 - Proton therapy, a form of radiotherapy, relies on DNA damage (strand breaks) to kill cancer cells like other forms of radiotherapy but the targeted anti-tumour dose can be much higher with protons, sparing normal tissues. Damage to one of the two DNA strands can sometimes be repaired in the cancer cell, leading to unwanted cancer cell survival and disease progression. Specific genes, including ATM, BRCA1 and BRCA2, have an essential role in this DNA repair pathway and this can occur in hereditary tumour syndromes with genetic predispositions, or arise just in tumours themselves. The mutations also result in markedly increased susceptibility to a variety of cancers. For example, women with BRCA1 mutation have as much as an 85% lifetime risk of developing triple-negative breast cancer. Clinical research has also shown that ATM mutations - which make the DNA repair mechanism less effective - confer exceptional responses to radiation therapy, and hence can be used as a novel mutation-based marker of radiosensitivity.
 
4 - This study was undertaken by Advanced Oncotherapy using the LIGHT system beam model. Before the LIGHT system can be used for patient treatment it will be subject to 510(k) clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration as well as conformity assessment(s) in the different regions in which Advanced Oncotherapy is planning to market the system.
 
5 - Triple negative breast cancers represent about 10-15% of breast cancers (American Cancer Society). Patients demonstrate the absence of oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2 expression.
 
 




Advanced Oncotherapy plc


www.avoplc.com




Dr. Michael Sinclair, Executive Chairman 


Tel: +44 (0) 20 3617 8728




Nicolas Serandour, CEO


 




 


 




Allenby Capital Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker)


 




Nick Athanas / Liz Kirchner (Corporate Finance)
Amrit Nahal / Matt Butlin (Sales and Corporate Broking)


Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656




 


 




SI Capital Ltd (Joint Broker) 


 




Nick Emerson 


Tel: +44 (0) 1483 413 500




Jon Levinson


Tel: +44 (0) 20 3871 4066




 


 




FTI Consulting (Financial PR & IR)


advancedoncotherapy@fticonsulting.com




Simon Conway / Rob Winder


Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000




 
 
About Advanced Oncotherapy Plc www.avoplc.com
 
Advanced Oncotherapy, a UK headquartered company with offices in London, Geneva, The Netherlands and in the USA, is a provider of particle therapy with protons that harnesses the best in modern technology. Advanced Oncotherapy's team "ADAM," based in Geneva, focuses on the development of a proprietary proton accelerator called, Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology (LIGHT). LIGHT's compact configuration delivers proton beams in a way that facilitates greater precision and electronic control.
 
Advanced Oncotherapy will offer healthcare providers affordable systems that will enable them to treat cancer with innovative technology as well as expected lower treatment-related side effects.
 
Advanced Oncotherapy continually monitors the market for any emerging improvements in delivering proton therapy and actively seeks working relationships with providers of these innovative technologies. Through these relationships, the Company will remain the prime provider of an innovative and cost-effective system for particle therapy with protons.

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