Oncology

Labcorp says it can now move tumor slides at internet speed instead of parcel speed. The diagnostics giant today rolled out a Leica-scanner–based digital-pathology network across its central labs and paired it with new next-generation-sequencing panels and homologous-recombination-deficiency (HRD) testing, a package the company claims will dramatically accelerate biomarker screening for oncology studies, with the potential to significantly…

AP Biosciences is building the protocol around one key objective: confirm that conditional CD137 agonism, a tumor-restricted T-cell costimulation, can be delivered safely in patients whose HER2-positive solid tumors express the p95HER2 variant, a truncated, drug-resistant form of HER2. To that end, it recently dosed the first patient in the Phase 1/2 trial of its…

Cell therapies hold immense promise but, traditionally, carry a similarly large price tag often linked to complex, manual manufacturing. In its latest move to help make these life-saving  and -enhancing treatments more scalable and potentially accessible, Cellares is partnering with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health to automate the clinical-scale manufacturing…

Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) has  emerged as a promising modality in drug discovery, hijacking the body’s natural disposal systems to eliminate disease-causing proteins. While bivalent degraders like PROTACs have pioneered the field, demonstrating clinical promise, attention is increasingly turning toward a new upstart — Molecular Glue Degraders (MGDs). These smaller, simpler molecules offer advantages but…

COTA Healthcare recently unveiled what it calls a major breakthrough in real-world oncology data (RWD). At the heart of this achievement is a generative AI (GenAI) platform that the company says makes large-scale curation of cancer data both accurate and profitable, marking a significant shift from previous industry attempts to automate the labor-intensive RWD abstraction…

“The era of ‘what if’ for AI in healthcare is over. Now, it’s all about ‘what is.’ ” So says Blythe Adamson, head of outcomes research and evidence generation at the real-world evidence platform Flatiron Health, a company reimagining cancer care infrastructure. “Post-ChatGPT,” she states, “the skepticism has vanished.” The proof? Flatiron is seeing data…

Immunotherapy resistance in solid tumors remains one of oncology’s most significant therapeutic challenges, with multiple cancer types showing limited response to current approaches. Microsatellite stable colorectal cancer (MSS CRC) exemplifies this challenge, with over 90% of MSS CRC cases failing to respond to checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy, while resistance patterns also emerge in many other immunologically…

Three years after demonstrating the first-ever in vivo use of click chemistry by safely delivering 12 times the standard dose of doxorubicin directly to tumors, Shasqi is again pushing boundaries. Its CAPAC platform, which initially relied on intratumoral injections, now targets CEACAM5, a cell-surface antigen overexpressed in lung, gastric, pancreatic, colorectal, esophageal/HNSCC, and cervical cancers,…

After several muted years, the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference signaled a return to big-ticket deals. J&J’s proposed $14.6 billion acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies and GSK’s $1 billion purchase of IDRx catapulted this year’s meeting to the largest M&A showing since at least 2019. But behind those high-profile acquisition announcements, JPM speakers and insiders also…

An analysis of FDA approvals across these five years shows small molecules remain central to modern therapeutics, even as complex biologics—particularly monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs), and next-generation modalities—are on the rise. Steady R&D investment in these advanced approaches reflects growing clinical confidence in targeted therapies that address difficult or rare disease pathways. 1.…

The conceptual and technological underpinnings of digital pathology have been around for decades, with the virtual microscope emerging in the 1990s. But mainstream adoption remained elusive. For instance, when the digital histopathology service company HistoWiz launched in 2013, its focus was straightforward: provide faster turnaround times than traditional histology labs. Over the years, the company…

Swiss pharma giants Novartis and Roche consistently rank among the top pharma companies in terms of revenue. In 2024, the two companies are also leading in total international patent volume. Meanwhile, smaller firms like Incyte and Vertex Pharma are punching above their weight in market impact. For instance, Incyte, with a market cap of just…

The rationale for targeting CDK2, CDK4 and CDK6 has been solid since the discovery of these kinases almost 40 years ago. They sit at the bottom of the oncogenic signaling funnel, meaning that they are the final recipient and executioners of most of the oncogenic signals driving cancer cell proliferation. Cell surface receptors, like HER2…

Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the nation, with over 300,000 new cases expected to be diagnosed this year. While the narrative for breast cancer early detection centers around mammograms, the gold standard for diagnosis, clinicians have tapped into enhancing radiology and X-ray imaging using artificial intelligence (AI). This AI-enhanced approach…

A new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that identifying distinct immune “signatures” in patients may help oncologists predict and prevent adverse events associated with immunotherapy. This observational study, reportedly the largest of its kind, prospectively enrolled 111 patients with solid tumors receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy at Johns Hopkins. Researchers…

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have announced a new discovery in the fight against melanoma. The study, published in the journal Molecular Cancer, reveals a new mechanism behind drug resistance in melanoma and proposes potential strategies to overcome it. Led by Dr. Tackhoon Kim, the research team identified that melanomas…

Recent studies from UCLA Health and Moffitt Cancer Center have uncovered a potential link between common breast cancer treatments and accelerated biological aging. The research, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggests that chemotherapy, radiation, and even surgery may speed up cellular aging processes in breast cancer survivors. Dr. Judith Carroll, lead…

Traditionally, only a small fraction of oncology drugs make it from phase 1 to commercialization. And biopharmaceutical companies continue to face significant challenges in understanding how new oncology drug approvals affect treatment patterns and market share. To deal with such hurdles, Oracle has recently launched CancerMPact Treatment Architecture Trends (PDF overview here), a resource that…

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic’s Global Center for Immunotherapy, in collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, have published a comprehensive study on how the immune system remodels the tumor microenvironment in response to immune checkpoint therapy. This research represents the most detailed analysis of this process to date. Under the leadership of Timothy Chan, MD, PhD, Chair…

Scorpion Therapeutics’ new oral cancer drug, STX-478, showed promising anti-tumor activity as a monotherapy in a Phase 1/2 trial, achieving an overall response rate (ORR) of 23% in breast cancer and 21% across all tumor types studied. The data were unveiled at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024, held 13–17 September 2024.…

Updated results from the Phase 3 NATALEE trial reveal that Kisqali (ribociclib) significantly cut the risk of recurrence in patients with HR+/HER2- early breast cancer. Adding Kisqali to standard endocrine therapy (ET) resulted in a 28.5% reduction in invasive disease-free survival (iDFS) events compared to ET alone (HR=0.715; 95% CI: 0.609–0.840; P<0.0001), Novartis announced in…

Redwood City, California–based Earli is, in many ways, a quintessential Silicon Valley startup. As is often the case, there’s not only a Stanford connection but a grand ambition. The company is developing a “synthetic biopsy” platform that aims to detect cancer at its earliest stages by programming cancer cells to reveal themselves and even self-destruct.…

Recursion Pharmaceuticals and Exscientia, two of the most prominent AI-driven drug discovery companies, are merging. The deal, which the firms expect to be official in early 2025, would create a portfolio of clinical and near-clinical programs with an expected 10 clinical readouts over the the next 18 months with “peak sales opportunities in excess of…

Immunotherapies, including cellular immunotherapies, have dramatically impacted the treatment of cancer. Recent advances in the field, such as autologous (patient-derived) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies, have yielded remarkable results in relatively rare blood-based cancers. These results have driven an explosion in the research and development of different cellular products, including both autologous and allogeneic…

Small-molecule drugs have been a mainstay of medicine for over a century, including many of the most impactful pharmaceuticals in human history, such as aspirin and penicillin. Recently, though, biologics—or large-molecule drugs—have become more popular. In fact, in 2016, eight out of 10 of the best-selling drugs globally were biologics. However, small-molecule drugs are experiencing…