An observational study has started enrolling patients with advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Florida-based Nilogen Oncosystems made the announcement today (July 29) that those who are receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors in the standard of care will be registered for the study.
Using advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to discover biomarker signatures as predictors of patient responses, Nilogen will evaluate 3D-EXplore results with patient outcome data.
The company says it will help to understand the fundamental mechanisms of action for each therapeutic to advance personalized treatment for patients based on the functional response of cancer.
Tumor microenvironment
3D-EXplore is a fresh human tumor ex vivo explant platform that retains the immune compartment and full tumor microenvironment capturing the heterogeneity of the tumor while preserving its immune compartment.
The company says these are key to understanding the true response of tumor tissue to oncology therapeutics, allowing drug developers and clinicians to understand drug performance in human tissue, providing an informed approach to clinical development and patient response.
This positions the platform to provide drug developers with answers to mechanistic questions about their immuno-oncology drug candidates and prioritize the most promising candidates for advancement into clinical trials.
Biomarker signatures
The company says it will enable the discovery of complex biomarker signatures and support patient selection and co-clinical studies. For clinicians, the opportunity to select the most beneficial treatment regimen for patients based on functional response rather than surrogate markers will enable personalized cancer immunotherapy.
Soner Altiol, chief scientific officer at Nilogen Oncsystems, said: “Nilogen’s unique 3D-EXplore explant platform is already in use worldwide by pharma and biotech companies large and small to support translational and clinical studies, especially in immuno-oncology and with modalities like Bispecific antibodies, Cell Therapies, ADCs, ADCC, and Oncolytic Virus.
“We are pleased to begin our observational clinical study to demonstrate the power of 3D-EXplore to predict patient response based on functional response data, with the aim to ultimately provide clinicians and patients with the ability to select the best therapy based on the real response of their cancer to therapies rather than surrogate markers.”
Complex datasets
3D-EXplore’s ability is to resolve tumor tissue heterogeneity and quantitatively and directly measure penetration, proliferation, tumor cell killing and phenotypic changes in the immune compartment and tumor microenvironment in fresh tumor tissue using advanced flow cytometry and high-content confocal microscopy.
These complex datasets can be deconvoluted to deliver biomarker signatures and powerful treatment response predictions which can be correlated to clinical outcomes for a more effective and efficient cancer drug development approach. The company said it can work with patient samples to directly support clinical trials and patient treatment.