Archive for the ‘Gene Therapy Research’ Category
Association between genetic mutation and risk of death for patients with thyroid cancer
Public release date: 9-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vanessa Wasta wasta@jhmi.edu 410-614-2916 The JAMA Network Journals
Presence of the genetic mutation BRAF V600E was significantly associated with increased cancer-related death among patients with papillary thyroid cancer (PTC); however, because overall mortality in PTC is low and the association was not independent of tumor characteristics, how to use this information to manage mortality risk in patients with PTC is unclear, according to a study in the April 10 issue of JAMA, a Genomics theme issue.
"Papillary thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy and accounts for 85 percent to 90 percent of all thyroid cancers," according to background information in the article. "The overall 5-year patient survival rate for PTC is 95 percent to 97 percent. A major clinical challenge is how to reliably distinguish patients who need aggressive treatments to reduce mortality from those who do not. This represents a widely controversial issue in thyroid cancer medicine, particularly because of the low overall mortality of this cancer. The issue has become even more challenging given the high annual incidence of PTC." BRAF V600E is a prominent oncogene [ a gene, one or more forms of which is associated with cancer] in PTC and "has drawn considerable attention as a potential prognostic factor for PTC. However, the clinical significance of this mutation in PTC-related mortality has not been established."
Mingzhao Xing, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and colleagues conducted a study to examine and define the association between the BRAF V600E mutation and PTC-related mortality. The study included 1,849 patients (1,411 women and 438 men) with a median (midpoint) age of 46 years and an overall median follow-up time of 33 months after initial treatment at 13 centers in 7 countries between 1978 and 2011.
The overall prevalence of BRAF V600E was 45.7 percent (845/1,849). There were 56 PTC-related deaths among the 1,849 patients, representing an overall mortality of 3.0 percent. Among these deaths, 45 cases (80.4 percent) were positive for BRAF V600E. The overall mortality of all PTC cases was 5.3 percent (45/845) in BRAF V600E-positive patients vs. 1.1 percent (11/1,004) in mutation-negative patients.
When the aggressive tumor features of lymph node metastasis, extrathyroidal invasion, and distant metastasis were also included in the model, the association of BRAF V600E with mortality for all PTC was no longer significant, the authors write. "A higher BRAF V600E-associated patient mortality was also observed in several clinicopathological subcategories, but statistical significance was lost with adjustment for patient age, sex, and medical center."
"In summary, in this multicenter study, the presence of the BRAF V600E mutation was significantly associated with increased cancer-related mortality among patients with PTC. However, overall mortality in PTC is low, and the association was not independent of tumor behaviors. Therefore, how to use BRAF V600E for the management of mortality risk among patients with PTC is not clear. These findings support further investigation of the prognostic and therapeutic implications of BRAF V600E status in PTC."
(JAMA. 2013;309(14):1493-1501; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
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Association between genetic mutation and risk of death for patients with thyroid cancer
Harold M. Schmeck Jr., 89; science writer specialized in covering medical research for N.Y. Times
NEW YORK Harold M. Schmeck Jr. a science writer for The New York Times for more than 30 years who specialized in covering medical research, from the space age to the era of genetic medicine died April 1 in Hyannis. He was 89.
He died after a heart attack, said his son, Peter.
Mr. Schmeck, who worked at The Times from 1957 to 1989, filed exclusive articles on the health of some of the first American astronauts in the 1960s, as well as on the beginning of the effort to map the human genome in the 1980s. He wrote extensively about organ transplants, AIDS, and the federal agencies involved with public health.
Mr. Schmeck wrote with conversational clarity on complicated subjects.
Two American astronauts are expected to come back to Earth tomorrow tired and badly in need of shaves and showers but carrying with them the answer to one of the most important questions facing the whole United States program of space exploration, he wrote in a 1965 article about the Gemini 5 space mission, at the time the longest manned spaceflight. The question is: What are the effects on a man of a spaceflight long enough to have taken him to the moon and back?
The answer: probably nothing serious.
In 1987, he described advances in identifying genetic markers on human chromosomes: Before the discovery of markers, chromosomes were like unnumbered avenues; the markers are like cross streets that enable a gene to be placed, say, between 15th Street and 16th Street along the avenue of the chromosome.
Harold Marshall Schmeck Jr. was born in Tonawanda, N.Y., near Buffalo. After serving in the US Army Air Corps during World War II, he graduated with a degree in English from Cornell in 1948 and quickly found work as an editor with the universitys Alumni News. He then worked briefly for a small paper in Illinois before joining The Rochester Times-Union.
It was there that he began his science writing career. Just three years later, he won a Nieman fellowship to Harvard. He joined The Times in 1957.
Mr. Schmeck, who lived on Cape Cod in Chatham, leaves his son and a grandson. His wife of 59 years, the former Lois Gallo, died in 2010.
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Harold M. Schmeck Jr., 89; science writer specialized in covering medical research for N.Y. Times
Groundbreaking Clinical Trial Research on Genetic Basis of Children’s Health Powered by Cloud Technology from Medidata …
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Inova Translational Medicine Institute, a not-for-profit research initiative bringing personalized medicine to the public, has chosen a joint solution by Medidata Solutions (MDSO) and Digital Infuzion to support a unique observational study involving the correlation between a childs genetic profile, their development and their long-term health. Together, Medidata and Digital Infuzion will deliver a web-based portal and cloud technology for collecting patient data, reviewing study progress and providing subjects with access to surveys and study information.
In a unique combination of genomics and clinical research, Inova is studying 2,500 families to analyze and predict the relationship between genetics and childhood developmental issues. The study will follow the infants for the first 1,000 days, starting in utero, and identify any health and development issues. By comparing these with the genetic profile of each family (child, mother and father), Inova hopes to identify specific genomic information associated with the medical issues, ultimately leading to new treatment and prevention pathways.
The joint solution will bring together Medidata Ravethe industry-leading system for capturing, managing and reporting clinical research datawith Digital Infuzions N of 1 Health Research Platforma technology service that provides tools for physicians and other care team members to collect, monitor and report on data and medical knowledge related to observational research, chronic disease and patient outcomes. Through a computer single sign-on, researchers will enter data about subject health, monitor participants and track study progress. Participating parents will complete surveys every six months via the portal and will have access to study updates and a library of materials to guide them through the three-year trial. Researchers can also generate immediate ad hoc reports aggregating real-time data from multiple sources, including patient health data from Rave and surveys, and genomic sequencing stored in the Amazon Cloud.
To support efficient study execution and insightful analysis, Inova required an intuitive system that made it easy for parents and site staff alike to enter patient observations and access study information, while also offering robust reporting that could generate dynamic, data-rich reports to enable insightful analysis.
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About Inova Translational Medicine Institute
Inova Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI) is a not-for-profit research institute delving into the genomics component of personalized medicine. ITMI is utilizing genomic and clinical information from patients to develop innovative methods for personalized patient care. Pilot studies at the Institute have generated a large genomic and clinical data set that can be used as pilot data in a variety of fields, from computational biology to psychology as well as more obvious biomedical research applications. ITMIs goal is to utilize information from its pilot studies to better understand and predict the onset of disease, leading to the implementation of preventive medicine based on the unique genomics of the individual patient.
About Digital Infuzion, Inc.
Digital Infuzion is a custom biomedical informatics solutions provider focused on developing and applying technology to empower decision making and accelerate insight for health, science and human understanding in the life sciences and clinical research industries. Working at the intersection of biology, medicine and technology, our deep understanding of these fields grants us the ability to offer the most innovative technology services and real-world solutions to the world's leading research centers and healthcare organizations, for the advancement of biomedical informatics.
Testing for BRAF Genetic Mutation Beneficial Only in Aggressive Thyroid Cancers
Newswise PHILADELPHIA - Late stage thyroid cancer patients with aggressive disease may benefit from a genetic test, but experts caution that use of this test in early stage patients is inappropriate because it is unlikely to lead to better outcomes. Testing for BRAF V600E-positive tumors should be reserved for patients older than 45 who have more advanced disease, according to an accompanying editorial in JAMA co-authored by two Perelman School of Medicine researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.
The most common form of thyroid cancer, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), has an excellent prognosis when caught early, with five year survival rates of 98 percent. But 7 percent of people have an aggressive form of PTC that is more difficult to treat. A JAMA study looking at a test for a mutation in the BRAF gene (V600E) suggests that this gene mutation may be part of what makes the tumor so aggressive, suggesting that targeted treatments may be effective at inhibiting the BRAF function in PTC patients with advanced disease.
"While thyroid cancer is treatable and has a good prognosis in most cases, the aggressive cases of PTC can be unpredictable" said editorial co-author Anne Cappola, MD, ScM, associate professor of Medicine in Endocrinology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a contributing editor at JAMA. "Genetic testing for these aggressive cases, but not for all cases, may help us match people's tumors with targeted treatments, when possible."
Co-author Susan Mandel, MD, MPH, director of the Penn Thyroid Center, professor of Medicine and Radiology, and incoming vice president of The Endocrine Society, noted that "patients with these aggressive forms of PTC may be eligible to participate in clinical trials testing drugs targeting BRAF and other targeted therapy trials."
The Penn-authored JAMA editorial is in reference to "Association between BRAF V600E mutation and mortality in patients with papillary thyroid cancer" by Xing et al, also in this week's genomics edition of JAMA.
# # #
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.
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Testing for BRAF Genetic Mutation Beneficial Only in Aggressive Thyroid Cancers
Crafoord Vetenskapslunch – Mat som – eller istället för – medicin? – Video
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By: Medicinska Fakulteten, LU
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Genetic rescue and biodiversity banking: Oliver Ryder at TEDxDeExtinction – Video
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5.Wong’s Prediction Technology: Analyse Korean War warning by mathematics
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UK-Based West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory (WMRGL) Selects Cartagenia BENCHlab CNV Solution for Clinical Data …
BOSTON and BIRMINGHAM,England, April 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Cartagenia, the world leader in providing genetic labs and clinicians software-based workflow support for variant assessment, lab reporting, and integration of diagnostic knowledge-bases, announced today that it has signed a license agreement for its cloud-based BENCHlab CNV solution for genetic variant storage and analysis with West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory (WMRGL) at Birmingham Women's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (BWHFT).
WMRGL is the first UK-based lab to license the Cartagenia BENCHlab CNV platform, a software and database solution created in collaboration with genetics labs and clinical experts to automate and speed up testing practices and develop high-quality lab reports. For WMRGL, the Cartagenia solution will support the storage, filtration, analysis and interpretation of CNV data produced by the laboratories' pre- and post-natal testing services. The BENCHlab solutions can also handle NGS data generated as gene panels, exomes and whole genomes and can automatically generate clinical reports specific to a laboratory's needs.
The Cartagenia BENCHlab platform will also help link clinical and phenotypic data from the Fetal Medicine Centre at BWHFT with genetic data generated at WMRGL for submission into the UK EACH (Evaluation of Array Comparative Genomic Hybridisation in Prenatal Diagnosis of Fetal Anomalies) research project, a three-year national, multi-center study designed to assess how array CGH testing (also known as chromosomal microarray analysis) compares to traditional karyotyping in prenatal diagnosis in terms of detecting chromosomal imbalances in fetuses. The EACH project is built on another Cartagenia product, BENCHlab Consortium, a solution for multi-center genotype and phenotype data aggregation projects.
Additionally, Cartagenia is working with WMRGL and several other centres in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) to create a pilot national CNV database in which UK-based diagnostic labs can optimally pool and share their genetic information. As envisioned, that database will ultimately be linked to the International Collaboration of Clinical Genetics (formerly ISCA), an even larger pool of research consortia.
"We are a very large lab with a Regional Genetics Service serving a population of nearly 6 million people, and the Cartagenia BENCHlab product is the perfect tool for us to add quality and consistency to our data collection and analytical needs," said Dom McMullan, Principal Clinical Scientist at WMRGL. "BENCHlab is an attractive option because it's platform neutral, with very robust and adaptable filtering options, allowing us to more easily manage, collect and store various types of microarray data. BENCHlab will provide us a more consistent output and aid us in bringing consistency to our analyses."
Cartagenia CEO Herman Verrelst noted that working with BWHFT and WMRGL provides Cartagenia an important entrance to the UK market as well as the UK EACH research project.
"We are very pleased to have our BENCHlab tool serving such a respected and important lab as the WMRGL," Verrelst said. "We believe partnering with WMRGL in the piloting of a national UK-based CNV database will prove that our BENCHlab platform is the perfect collaborative tool that allows labs to pool and share information and improve the quality of the data and diagnostic yield of their efforts. Furthermore, this database could serve as a cornerstone in our effort to market to other genetics labs in the UK and in Europe as well as help create a network to provide and promote better patient care."
About BWHFT and WMRGL
BWHFT provides a range of healthcare services to women and men across the West Midlands and beyond. Services include maternity, gynecology, fetal medicine, neonatal intensive care, genetics, radiology, specialist pathology and fertility medicine. WMRGL provides fully comprehensive germline and cancer genetic diagnostic programme services with a strong research and development component to a population of nearly 6 million and is the largest NHS diagnostic laboratory in the UK.
About Cartagenia
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UK-Based West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory (WMRGL) Selects Cartagenia BENCHlab CNV Solution for Clinical Data ...
Genetics of life and death in an evolutionary arms-race
Apr. 9, 2013 Scientists at The University of Manchester have found evidence of the genetic basis of the evolutionary arms-race between parasitoids and their aphid hosts.
The researchers studied the reaction of aphids when a parasitic wasp with genetic variation laid eggs in them. They found that different genotypes of the wasp affected where the aphids went to die, including whether they left the plant host entirely. The team also found an example of the emergence of a shared phenotype that was partly wasp and partly aphid.
Dr Mouhammad Shadi Khudr, a visiting scientist at the Faculty of Life Sciences, led the research: Natural selection on the aphid prey depends not only on aphid genes, but also on the genetics of the parasitic wasp. The indirect genetic effects underlying the relationship between natural enemies have been rarely shown, especially when they arise between species. Parasite-manipulation is endlessly fascinating, albeit with a somewhat ghoulish quality! This study sheds light on how genetic variation can influence that manipulation.
The researchers began the study by breeding 13 males with 3 females of the wasp Aphidius ervi, through which a quantitative genetic design was created. The resulting offspring of full and half siblings provided a basis of genetic variation in the parasitic wasp to test how different individuals of the latter are associated with variation in the aphids behaviour when aphids are prone to the wasps manipulation. One genotype of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum was chosen. Since this species reproduces asexually by parthenogenesis, the resulting genetically identical individuals make up a specific type of colony known as clone.
The team then introduced the wasps into 156 cages that contained a broad bean plant and an aphid colony. They then compared the behaviour of aphids in the presence and absence of the wasp by monitoring what the aphids did over the next ten days. Successful parasitism ends with the death of the aphid host which becomes a pale brownish remainder called a mummy. Once the aphids had mummified, the location of each mummy was recorded according to its position on the plant and at other locations within the cage.
Dr Khudr says: Our results confirm that parasitism by a parasitoid wasp can lead to behavioural modifications in an aphid host. The effect of the wasp fathers was significant on the distribution of the parasitised and non-parasitised aphids. There was also a notable effect of mothers indicating a maternal influence on the distribution of parasitised vs. non-parasitised aphids. This can reflect a fitness-difference between father families.
As well as monitoring their behaviour whilst they were alive, the positions of the aphids bodies once the new wasp has hatched also varied both on and off the plants. This variation was dependent on the wasp genotype. Its this relationship between the wasp and its host which starts with parasitism and ends with predation that fascinates Dr Khudr.
What were witnessing on the broad bean plants is an evolutionary arms-race between two enemies where each one strives to cap each others fitness. This can be observed through varying manipulative strategies applied by the parasitic wasps in order to subdue their hosts. The wasp has to ensure the aphid can be kept alive long enough to ensure it can mature. The parasitised aphid will on occasion commit suicide if it realises it has the wasp growing within it and by doing so it can save the rest of the colony from a subsequent attack. What weve been able to do in this study is to open the window on how the genetics of one species influence the behaviour and manipulation of another host species.
The findings have been published in the Royal Societys Biology Letters. Discussing the findings Dr Khudr says he was surprised by what the team recorded: We had expected some variation in the aphids movement and behaviour but not to the extent that we witnessed. An organisms phenotype (behaviour) can be the product of the genes expressed in another organism
The next step is to carry out further research to establish if specific genes in the wasps can be linked to particular behaviours in the aphids. Dr Khudr hopes this type of information could increase our understanding of the importance of genetic diversity in ecosystem services, and lead to the development of better biological controls for aphid populations.
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Genetics of life and death in an evolutionary arms-race
Genetics: A gene of rare effect
ADAPTED FROM: PETER DAZELEY/GETTY
When Sharlayne Tracy showed up at the clinical suite in the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas last January, the bandage wrapped around her left wrist was the only sign of anything medically amiss. The bandage covered a minor injury from a cheerleading practice led by Tracy, a 40-year-old African American who is an aerobics instructor, a mother of two and a college student pursuing a degree in business. I feel like I'm healthy as a horse, she said.
Indeed, Tracy's well-being has been inspiring to doctors, geneticists and now pharmaceutical companies precisely because she is so normal. Using every tool in the modern diagnostic arsenal from brain scans and kidney sonograms to 24-hour blood-pressure monitors and cognitive tests researchers at the Texas medical centre have diagnostically sliced and diced Tracy to make sure that the two highly unusual genetic mutations she has carried for her entire life have produced nothing more startling than an incredibly low level of cholesterol in her blood. At a time when the target for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, more commonly called 'bad cholesterol', in Americans' blood is less than 100 milligrams per decilitre (a level many people fail to achieve), Tracy's level is just 14.
A compact woman with wide-eyed energy, Tracy (not her real name) is one of a handful of African Americans whose genetics have enabled scientists to uncover one of the most promising compounds for controlling cholesterol since the first statin drug was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1987. Seven years ago, researchers Helen Hobbs and Jonathan Cohen at UT-Southwestern reported1 that Tracy had inherited two mutations, one from her father and the other from her mother, in a gene called PCSK9, effectively eliminating a protein in the blood that has a fundamental role in controlling the levels of LDL cholesterol. African Americans with similar mutations have a nearly 90% reduced risk of heart disease. She's our girl, our main girl, says Barbara Gilbert, a nurse who has drawn some 8,000 blood samples as part of Cohen and Hobbs' project to find genes important to cholesterol metabolism.
Of all the intriguing DNA sequences spat out by the Human Genome Project and its ancillary studies, perhaps none is a more promising candidate to have a rapid, large-scale impact on human health than PCSK9. Elias Zerhouni, former director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, calls PCSK9 an iconic example of translational medicine in the genomics era. Preliminary clinical trials have already shown that drugs that inhibit the PCSK9 protein used with or without statins produce dramatic reductions in LDL cholesterol (more than 70% in some patients). Half-a-dozen pharmaceutical companies all aiming for a share of the global market for cholesterol-reducing drugs that could reach US$25 billion in the next five years according to some estimates are racing to the market with drugs that mimic the effect of Tracy's paired mutations.
Stephen Hall talks about Sharlaynes unusual condition and whether similar cases might lead to a new line of drugs.
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Zerhouni, now an in-house champion of this class of drug as an executive at drug firm Sanofi, headquartered in Paris, calls the discovery and development of PCSK9 a beautiful story in which researchers combined detailed physical information about patients with shrewd genetics to identify a medically important gene that has made super-fast progress to the clinic. Once you have it, boy, everything just lines up, he says. And although the end of the PCSK9 story has yet to be written the advanced clinical trials now under way could still be derailed by unexpected side effects it holds a valuable lesson for genomic research. The key discovery about PCSK9's medical potential was made by researchers working not only apart from the prevailing scientific strategy of genome research over the past decade, but with an almost entirely different approach.
As for Tracy, who lives in the southern part of Dallas County, the implications of her special genetic status have become clear. I really didn't understand at first, she admits. But now I'm watching ads on TV [for cholesterol-lowering drugs], and it's like, 'Wow, I don't have that problem'.
Cardiovascular disease is and will be for the foreseeable future, according to the World Health Organization the leading cause of death in the world, and its development is intimately linked to elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood. Since their introduction, statin drugs have been widely used to lower cholesterol levels. But Jan Breslow, a physician and geneticist at Rockefeller University in New York, points out that up to 20% of patients cannot tolerate statins' side effects, which include muscle pain and even forgetfulness. And in many others, the drugs simply don't control cholesterol levels well enough.
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Genetics: A gene of rare effect
Seattle Genetics and Collaborators Highlight Multiple Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) Programs and Technology Advances …
BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN) today announced that research related to its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology was presented in multiple sessions at the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) being held in Washington, D.C. Three data presentations highlight the rapid progress being made in ADC technology and testing. This includes preclinical data evaluating ADCs using a potent and newly developed cytotoxic agent, pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer, against two targets, CD33 and CD70. The former, SGN-CD33A, is expected to be advanced into a phase 1 clinical trial in 2013 for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In addition, preclinical data demonstrate activity of a new ADC for metastatic breast cancer, SGN-LIV1A, utilizing the same proprietary ADC technology as ADCETRIS (brentuximab vedotin). The company also presented research on a novel method for making highly stable linkers, an advance that is being evaluated for potential future ADCs. In addition, many of the companys collaborators, including Genentech, Pfizer, Progenics and Genmab, are reporting preclinical and clinical data from multiple ADC programs utilizing Seattle Genetics proprietary ADC technology.
As the leader in developing ADCs for the treatment of cancer, we are focused on both the current and future technology of this important class of therapeutics. More than half of the ADCs currently in clinical development utilize our technology, and we continue to advance additional candidates, such as SGN-CD33A and SGN-LIV1A, at a rapid pace. We are also looking at ways to enhance the next generation of ADCs, and believe that new potent cytotoxic agents such as PBD dimers, advances in antibody technology such as engineered cysteine antibodies (EC-mAbs), and highly stable linkers are part of that future, said Jonathan Drachman, M.D., Senior Vice President, Research and Translational Medicine at Seattle Genetics. We are driven to test these ADC advances quickly because cancer patients need new options to fight this relentless disease.
ADCs are designed to harness the targeting ability of antibodies to deliver cell-killing agents directly to cancer cells. This approach is intended to spare non-targeted cells and thus reduce many of the toxic effects of traditional chemotherapy while enhancing antitumor activity. Seattle Genetics and its collaborators have ten data presentations at AACR that highlight the widespread evaluation of its ADC technology to potentially impact the way cancer is treated in a meaningful way.
Seattle Genetics presentations at AACR highlight the following ADC findings:
Multiple presentations by Seattle Genetics ADC collaborators highlight strong preclinical and clinical progress.
About Seattle Genetics
Seattle Genetics is a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of monoclonal antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer. The companys lead program, ADCETRIS (brentuximab vedotin), received accelerated approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2011 and approval with conditions from Health Canada in February 2013 for two indications. In addition, under a collaboration with Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, ADCETRIS received conditional approval from the European Commission in October 2012. Seattle Genetics also has four other clinical-stage ADC programs: SGN-75, ASG-5ME, ASG-22ME and SGN-CD19A. Seattle Genetics has collaborations for its ADC technology with a number of leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie (formerly Abbott), Agensys (an affiliate of Astellas), Bayer, Celldex Therapeutics, Daiichi Sankyo, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Millennium, Pfizer and Progenics, as well as ADC co-development agreements with Agensys and Genmab. More information can be found at http://www.seattlegenetics.com.
Certain of the statements made in this press release are forward looking, such as those, among others, relating to the therapeutic potential of our preclinical product candidates and collaborator ADCs. Factors that may cause such a difference include the risk of adverse events as these ADCs advance in clinical trials. More information about the risks and uncertainties faced by Seattle Genetics is contained in the companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Seattle Genetics disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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