Scottish Health Innovations Ltd

Predictive and Prognostic Test for Efficiency of Platinum - Based Chemotherapy
Researchers and clinicians at the University of Aberdeen and Grampian Health Board have identified a set of genes that accurately predict lung cancer patient response to platinum based chemotherapy.

Expression data from a set of tumour specific genes has yielded a patient profile that will predict success or failure of platinum-based chemotherapy. This technology offers an opportunity to produce a diagnostic kit to indicate effective treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and also is a promising drug target for treatment of NSCLC; gene expression of one target gene, Serpin B3, was elevated by over 50 fold.

Market Opportunity
Lung cancer is a major healthcare problem with over 1million new cases (38,000 in the UK alone) each year and resulting in over 920,000 deaths per annum. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 75-80% of all lung cancer cases in the UK and approximately 80% of all NSCLC patients will be considered for chemotherapy treatment. The poor response rates to these treatments (30-50%) and the low cure rate for lung cancer (~6% alive at 5 years) illustrate that many patients are refractory to these treatments and chemoresistance of NSCL tumours to current therapies is a significant clinical problem. Current clinical, pathological and molecular indices do not allow accurate predicition of a patients response to chemotherapy.

Clinical Benefit
This technology will enable a test to accurately predict whether an individual NSCLC patient will respond or be refractory to standard platinum based chemotherapy regimens, to allow a tailored approach to treatment selection in the management of NSCLC.

The importance of early treatment with an effective therapy is highlighted by a recent analysis of lung cancer deaths, which revealed that 50% of patients die within 4 months of diagnosis. In addition, the test is likely to hold significant appeal to pharmaceutical companies by facilitating first-line treatment of their novel agents in patients predicted to be  refractory to standard chemotherapy.

The test would result in an average saving of at least £41.6M in prevention of ineffective treatment of newly diagnosed NSCLC patients per annum in the UK alone (based on cost estimates for a Cisplatin/ gemcitabine regimen of £6321 per patient).

Summary of Technology:
  • A set of genes that accurately predict lung cancer patient response to platinum based chemotherapy has been identified
  • A promising drug target for treatment of NSCLC; gene expression of one target gene, Serpin B3 elevated by over 50 fold Target - lysosomal protease inhibitor
  • Scoring system based
  • Evaluated on a fully characterised clinical reference set
  • Potential for use in kit form; RNA or haematology based
Stage of Development
Using gene expression, semiquantitative RT-PCR and immunohistichemistry on clinical samples the test has been shown to have an accuracy of >90%, compared to ~30% with current regimens.
SHIL and the University of Aberdeen are offering co-development or licence opportunities to companies who can assist in developing the technology further and validate larger samples of trial data.

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