Health Rounds: Experimental CG Oncology immunotherapy shows promise in bladder cancer
05/12/2024 20:10
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By Nancy Lapid
Dec 5 (Reuters) - Hello Health Rounds Readers! When
current therapies stop working against bladder cancer, a new
drug in development may someday come to the rescue. We also
report on discovery of genetic cell changes found in analyses of
cheek swabs that may eventually enable earlier detection of a
serious pregnancy complication.
Promising therapy for treatment-resistant bladder cancer
An experimental immunotherapy drug is a potentially
effective treatment for patients with bladder cancer who no
longer respond to current therapies, researchers reported on
Thursday at the Society of Urologic Oncology meeting in Dallas.
In a late-stage study involving 112 patients whose cancers
were not responding to the Bacillus Calmette Guerin - a vaccine
used for bladder cancer - nearly 75% experienced complete cancer
remission upon treatment with CG Oncology’s CGON.O
cretostimogene. Many of them remained cancer-free beyond two
years, researchers reported.
At the start of the trial, the cancer had not invaded the
muscle of the bladder wall in any of the patients. A year later,
that was still true for 97%.
Most participants did not need to have their bladder
surgically removed, and the treatment was well tolerated with
minimal serious side effects, according to the researchers.
"These findings address a significant unmet need for bladder
cancer patients and could improve their quality of life," study
leader Dr. Mark Tyson of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
said in a statement.
"We now know this treatment can be both effective and safe,
potentially reducing the need for bladder removal surgery and
providing a much-needed alternative for patients with limited
options."
Cretostimogene has received fast track and breakthrough
therapy designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
typically awarded to therapies the agency sees as a potential
major advance.
“Based upon the latest data, we are confident that
cretostimogene is well positioned to address an unmet need for
patients... if approved by the FDA,” CG Oncology President Ambaw
Bellete said in a statement.
Cheek swabs may help predict pregnancy complication
Analysis of cheek swabs from pregnant women has revealed a
potential biomarker for the dangerous pregnancy complication
known as preeclampsia, researchers reported, a finding that
could lead to a simple test to identify the condition earlier in
pregnancy.
The condition, which can lead to preterm births, is usually
not identified until the second semester, after symptoms such as
abnormally high blood pressure appear. Sometimes, the condition
can go undetected until it becomes an emergency.
“If we have a biomarker for the susceptibility of
preeclampsia, then there are some clinical management practices
in the first trimester and early second trimester that could
delay a preterm birth,” study leader Michael Skinner of
Washington State University said in a statement.
In preeclampsia, the mother is at risk for organ damage.
There is no cure, except for delivery of the baby and the
placenta.
Skinner’s team collected cheek cells from 49 women who had
just given birth, including 13 who had preeclampsia and a
preterm delivery.
They analyzed the cells for modifications to epigenetics,
which are molecular factors and processes that determine how
genes behave.
The 13 women with preeclampsia and preterm births had 389
epigenetic modifications to regions of DNA that activate or
suppress various genes, according to a report in Environmental
Epigenetics.
These modifications were not found in mothers without
preeclampsia and had only a 15% overlap with epigenetics of
other mothers who experienced preterm birth without
preeclampsia.
The researchers said they hope further research will confirm
that identifying these epigenetic changes in pregnant women in
the first trimester will improve the management of those at risk
for preeclampsia and help to delay or prevent preterm births.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; editing by Bill Berkrot)
((Nancy.Lapid@thomsonreuters.com))