IS MY TREATMENT WORKING?

assay

Early Determination of Response to Therapy

When a patient undergoes a new therapy, it is important to learn quickly whether or not the patient is responding to the treatment. If the patient is not responding, the oncologist can prescribe a different treatment, so the patient doesn’t lose precious time. Imaging is typically used to determine disease progression, but imaging requires the tumor to grow bigger to be detected. Data shows the possibility to provide information of treatment response in 30 days.

A baseline blood sample is taken before therapy.  A second blood sample is taken about 30 days after the therapy.  The response to therapy is determined by comparing the results of the two samples:

  • Not working: Any CTCs detected in the second sample

  • Not working: CAML size  or number increased in the second sample

  • Some benefit from therapy: CAML size  or number decreased in the second sample

  • Ideal case:  no CAML or CTC in the second sample

A blood test for companion diagnostics is simpler and cheaper than tissue biopsy.  CAMLs contain tumor markers. 

CAMLs are ideal for companion diagnostics because they are found in

  • All cancers

  • All stages of cancer

More than 30 drug targets have been developed by CreatvBio.  Some examples are:

  • PD-L1, PD-L2

  • HER2

  • CCR5

  • CXCR4

  • VEGFR1-2

Companion Diagnostics

Many cancer drugs target specific markers on the surface of the tumor.  If the tumor does not express the marker, then the patient is not expected to respond to the drug.  The test to determine effective use of the therapeutic drug for a patient is called companion diagnostics.

We can develop a simple blood test for companion diagnostics for the drug.

Companion Diagnostics for Immunotherapy

An example of companion diagnostic data for immunotherapy for lung cancer shows that Creatv Bio's blood test can provide important information whether the patient will benefit from immunotherapy.

This data was taken after chemoradiation therapy (CRT).  The data shows that CRT can change the PD-L1 expression of the tumor.

PD-L1 expression can be changed under a variety of situations. Another example is shown in Sequential Monitoring of Therapy below.