The U.S. FDA granted 510(k) clearance to Lantheus Holdings Inc.'s artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced automated bone scan index (aBSI) product for prostate cancer on GE Healthcare's Xeleris platform. ABSI improves quantification and management of disease progression in advanced prostate cancer patients.
Novocure Ltd. has scored another win, this time gaining the CE mark for the NovoTTF-100L system. As a result, Novocure plans to commercialize the device as a first-line treatment in combination with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy for unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).
Varian Medical Systems Inc. has invested $10 million in and inked a collaboration agreement with Cota Inc., a Boston-based curator of oncology clinical data. The radiation oncology company will now offer its customers access to Cota’s oncology real-world analytics and data curation services, which aggregate electronic health record (EHR) data to yield meaningful insights.
LONDON – Clinical genomics specialist Congenica Ltd. has raised $50 million in a series C round that will enable it to extend beyond its roots in rare disease diagnosis to personalized medicine in cancer, and health and wellness, while expanding its geographical reach.
The use of liquid biopsies, tests that look for variants in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) shed by tumors into blood plasma, could lead to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment in many cancers, according to University of Washington researchers. The tests misidentified a noncancer mutation that is particularly common in older people as a mutation used as a biomarker for PARP inhibitors indicated for use in prostate cancer, a study published in JAMA Oncology found, but the problem likely extends to other malignancies.
By analyzing patients’ reactions to treatment, Oncohost Ltd.’s proteomics-based platform enables earlier prediction of paradoxical responses to immunotherapy that promote tumor growth in certain cancers. The artificial intelligence-powered host response profiling platform, called Prophet, could help identify the best combination of therapies and minimize adverse effects from treatments that are unlikely to be beneficial.
Nanobiotix SA ’s achieved promising early results in several clinical trials for its first-in-class radioenhancer. Despite the pandemic, trials in head and neck squamous cell cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, and rectal cancer remain on track, the Cambridge, Mass., and Paris-based company reported at ASTRO 2020.
Castle Biosciences Inc.'s Decisiondx Diffdx-Melanoma test is now commercially available to help dermatopathologists better characterize melanocytic lesions. About 15% of suspicious pigmented skin lesions cannot be definitively determined to be benign or malignant using common methods. The new gene expression profile test reduces the number of indeterminate results by more than 70%.
Under the right circumstances, a single mouse can be as good as a group of eight or 10 animals in predicting whether a tumor will respond to a drug, researchers reported at the 2020 EORTC-NCI-AACR (ENA) Molecular Targets meeting on Saturday. The single-animal approach “allows incorporation of more tumor models within the same resource constraints,” Peter Houghton told reporters at a press conference previewing ENA highlights.
Illumina Inc. crushed analysts’ estimates for the third quarter, posting revenue of $794 million vs. the Street consensus of $716 million. Driving results were sequencing consumables, which racked up $500 million in the period, with clinical sequencing hitting 96% of pre-COVID-19 levels, up from 84% in the second quarter.