Category Archives: Angiogenesis

Exploiting the Tumor Microenvironment – Threshold, Bioatla, Pfizer

Two companies announced news last week regarding their efforts to treat cancer by administering treatments that become activated by physiological conditions specific to the tumor microenvironment. Threshold Pharmaceuticals announced data from Phase III clinical trials of evophosphamide (TH-302), and BioAtla announced an antibody development deal with Pfizer. Continue reading

Why do elephants have lower rates of cancer than humans?

Why elephants do not get cancer is a famous conundrum that was posed by epidemiologist Richard Peto of the University of Oxford, UK, in the 1970’s. Peto noted that, in general, there is little relationship between cancer rates and the body size or age of animals. Continue reading

Two New Drugs Effective in Kidney Cancer – Opdivo and Cometriq

Opdivo (nivolumab – BMS) and Cometriq (cabozantinib -Exelixis) demonstrated positive results in studies of patients with kidney cancer. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults, accounting for more than 100,000 deaths annually. Globally, the five-year survival rate for those diagnosed with metastatic, or advanced kidney cancer, is 12.1 percent. Continue reading

Bavituximab – Novel Checkpoint Inhibitor in Phase 3

Bavituximab is a monoclonal antibody that binds to phosphatidyl serine (PS), a molecule this is expressed in the inner side of the cell membrane. The drug is being developed by Peregrine Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and is in a late stage trial called SUNRISE –  A Phase III, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Multicenter Trial of Bavituximab Plus Docetaxel Versus Docetaxel Alone in Patients With Previously Treated Stage IIIb/IV Non-Squamous Non Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Continue reading

Amgen’s Trebananib Does Not Meet Overall Survival Endpoint in Phase Study of Ovarian Cancer Patients

Angiopoietin inhibitor, trebananib, did not extend overall survival (OS) in a Phase 3 study in ovarian cancer. In the TRINOVA-1 trial of 900 women with recurrent ovarian cancer following platinum-based chemotherapy, patients receiving trebananib plus paclitaxel had a 19.3 month overall survival versus 18.3 months OS for women receiving paclitaxel, alone.  The difference was not statistically significant. Continue reading

Targeted therapies for cancer – overview

The National Cancer Institute has a very informative, yet easy to understand overview  presented as a Q&A – Targeted Cancer Therapies. Continue reading

Targeted Nanoparticles for Cancer – optimizing physiochemical properties for enhanced tumor-killing

Last week, BIND Therapeutics and Amgen ended a collaboration on a targeted nanaoparticle that employed a proprietary cytotoxic compound from Amgen.  However, BIND has several other programs (and partnerships with AstraZeneca, Roche, and Pfizer) that are proceeding in the clinic, which employ its Targeted Nanoparticle (TNP) technology.  How does this work? Continue reading