The world’s largest and most comprehensive repository of somatic mutations found in cancer is celebrating its 20th birthday by adding 307,000 new genomic variants to its 24 million-strong database. With somatic mutations being the main drivers of tumor development, the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) is firmly established as a source of potential drug targets, for the discovery and validation of biomarkers associated with prognosis, treatment response and patient outcomes, and as a resource for characterizing the mutational landscape of individual tumors.
The most comprehensive study to date of how lung cancer evolves in response to selection pressures indicates the genetic profile at diagnosis can be used to predict how a tumor is likely to progress, opening up new prospects for personalized medicine and potential therapeutic targets. The data were generated in Tracerx (Tracking cancer evolution through therapy), a £14 million (US$17.4 million) study funded by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) with the aim of defining how clonal heterogeneity of tumor cells affects the risk of recurrence and survival.
Two years after its formation, Mosaic Therapeutics Ltd. has raised $28 million in a series A to begin commercialization of research carried out by the Translational Cancer Genomics Lab at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, U.K., into the genetic vulnerabilities of multiple tumor types and how that impacts response to therapy.
New understanding of how prostate cancer adapts to the stress of androgen receptor targeted drugs and becomes castrate-resistant, points to a lesser-studied family of lipid kinases as playing a pivotal role in this process. The findings indicate that specific inhibition of one isoform of these phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate-4-kinases (PI5P4K) could provide a route to prevent cancer cells altering their metabolism and becoming resistant to androgen deprivation.
Biontech SE is piggybacking on the U.K.’s lead in implementing cancer genomics in routine health care to set up a national clinical trial of personalized mRNA cancer vaccines that are based on the mutational landscape of individual tumors.
Prenetics Global Ltd. agreed to acquire a majority stake in Act Genomics Holdings Co. Ltd. as part of a move to target the precision oncology market. Prenetics will issue 19.9 million class A ordinary shares and pay $20 million in cash to complete the acquisition.
LONDON – New figures underline the devastating effect the pandemic is having on cancer clinical research, with recruitment to U.K. studies falling by 60%. A total of 27,734 patients were recruited in 2020/21, compared to an average of 67,057 in the three years previously. Over those three years, recruitment had been on the rise, going from 61,810 in 2017/18 to 71,709 in 2019/20, according to figures compiled by the Institute of Cancer Research in London.
