Veracyte Inc. reported new data showing its Decipher Prostate genomic classifier can help to identify patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC) who are more likely to benefit from treatment with Erleada (apalutamide) in addition to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). The study is the first to demonstrate Decipher Prostate’s prognostic utility in men with locally advanced prostate cancer.

At the 2021 virtual annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), results of the VISION trial testing the addition of Novartis AG’s radiopharmaceutical Lutetium-177-PSMA-617 (Lutetium-PSMA) to individualized standard-of-care regimens in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer improved both overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival.

At the 2021 virtual annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), results of the VISION trial testing the addition of Novartis AG's' radiopharmaceutical lutetium-177-PSMA-617 to individualized standard-of-care regimens in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer improved both overall survival and radiographic progression-free survival.

Lantheus Holdings Inc. has snagged FDA approval for Pylarify (piflufolastat F 18), a PET imaging agent for the identification of suspected metastasis or recurrence of prostate cancer. The company said the product will be available immediately in the mid-Atlantic and southern regions, with availability across the U.S. by the end of 2021.

LONDON – Ibex Medical Analytics Ltd. has secured a second CE marking for its Galen artificial intelligence decision support system for automated interpretation of tumor biopsies, adding breast cancer to the approval in prostate cancer secured just over a year ago. The CE mark follows results from a blinded, multicenter clinical study at Institut Curie in France and Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel. Ibex says that in the trial Galen breast demonstrated very high accuracy in detecting various types of breast cancer.

Avenda Health Inc. has taken a page out of the breast cancer book with a new technology that offers very localized treatment of prostate tumors in a procedure the company refers to as a prostate cancer lumpectomy. The FDA granted breakthrough device designation to the product based on its potential to transform care for one of the most common cancers.

Koelis SAS reported the first successful procedures for its platform in 3D fusion imaging-guided focal ablation of prostate cancer at the Clinique Nantes Atlantis in Saint-Herblain, France. These first procedures take place against the background of a multicenter prospective clinical trial starting on the Koelis platform. This includes eight European urology centers, of which six are in France, with data being stored in a dedicated registry.

TORONTO – Exact Imaging Inc. has secured C$5.1 million (US$4 million) from the Business Development Bank of Canada and federal Export Development Canada to drive adoption of its Exactvu micro-imaging platform for real-time imaging of the prostate. Company CEO Randy Aucoin said it’s been a slow process getting street cred for his prostate imager, investing “tens of millions of dollars” in a direct sales force that eventually installed 100 systems in the U.S., Europe and Canada.

Clinical-stage oncology company Nuview Life Sciences Inc. is developing a cancer diagnostic test and treatment delivery system that could reduce the need for costly, less accurate tests and surgical biopsies. The binary – yes/no – test employs a proprietary peptide construct, NV-VPAC1, that targets a specific receptor, called vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor type 1 (VPAC1), that is overexpressed on the surface of cancer cells.