NeoGenomics is pleased to have attended meetings this year where we've had the opportunity to highlight advances in drug development strategies. We are pleased to share some recaps from several recent meetings.
The 8th CAR-TCR Summit that was held in Boston, MA, in August provided a glimpse at some of the exciting evolving technologies in this space as well as the latest scientific updates. It was encouraging to see so much progress in the development of these promising therapies.
A recurring theme at the Summit was that despite unprecedented success in hematological cancers, the utility of CAR T cell therapy has been far less impressive in solid tumors. There are two major recognized challenges for solid tumors that include the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and the lack of a specific tumor-exclusive target. With that in mind, several talks and exhibitors, including NeoGenomics, highlighted the opportunity for spatial insight to address the complexities of the TME that potentially restricts CAR-T cell activity through the extracellular matrix and expression of suppressive immune cells and cytokines. Furthermore, new updates as to several targets for solid tumors that are in various stages of clinical development, including Mesothelin, Claudin-18.2 and EGFRvIII, were also discussed, focusing on specifics of efficacy as a monotherapy or combination therapy together with checkpoint inhibition. With that in mind, Principal Scientist in Pharma Services at NeoGenomics, Kirsteen Maclean, Ph.D., gave a talk summarizing results from a recent Nature Medicine publication from an ongoing phase1/2 trial in patients with refractory mesothelin-expressing tumors on utility of the novel T cell receptor fusion construct (TRuC) gavocabtagene autoleucel (gavo-cel). While the group's design consisted of a single-domain anti-mesothelin antibody that integrates into the endogenous T cell receptor (TCR) and engages the signaling capacity of the entire TCR upon mesothelin binding, the MultiOmyxTM multiplexed immunofluorescence spatial platform offered by NeoGenomics was used to address potential immunosuppression. For more details, please refer to: Being hit by a TRuC can be a good thing. As we move from fall 2023 into 2024, we look forward to hearing updates regarding the effectiveness of these potential targets for CAR T cell therapy in treating cancer and other diseases.
The 13th Annual World Clinical Biomarkers & CDx Summit also held in Boston united 600+ senior decision makers in the biomarker and CDx field. Talks and panel discussions aimed to accelerate clinically validated and affordable co-development of drug-CDx by overcoming commercialization, reimbursement and regulatory challenges in oncology and beyond in order to bring personalized medicine to patients faster. Senior leadership from NeoGenomics gave a talk entitled "NeoGenomics: Navigating the Ever-Changing Biomarker & CDx Landscapes to Ensure Stakeholder Alignment & Wide-Spread Accessibility," which demonstrated the breadth of our validated technologies available for biomarker discovery. Progress in available tools and platforms allows for improved and better-informed clinical trial design through indicators of target engagement and those that enable patient stratification. While biomarkers can facilitate the evaluation of therapeutic intervention on disease progression or recurrence, to date, few biomarkers have been sufficiently validated for use in clinical practice or clinical trials, and thus, this was an area of much discussion at the summit.
To learn more about some of the available talks and topics for discussion, visit: https://world-cdx.com/