Alabama Company grand to develop test for cancer treatment

Alabama company wins grant to develop test to measure success of cancer treatment

 

The National Institutes of Health awarded a two-year, $750,000 grant to Birmingham-based Blondin Bioscience to develop a blood test to determine whether prostate cancer treatments are working.

The company's founders identified a biomarker that can be measured in the blood and appears when tumors die. They hope to develop a test that can be used within two to three days of starting cancer treatment to determine whether it is working, said CEO Brad Spencer.

Right now, patients must wait weeks to find out if treatment has been effective. Doctors check tumor growth with radiographic scans that reveal whether treatment is working. If doctors had quicker access to information about the efficacy of treatment, they could substitute other drugs that work and save precious time, Spencer said.

"We're looking at the whole cancer burden," Spencer said. "It isn't just the disease – it's the fear from the disease."

If a patient can get information quickly that treatment is working, it might alleviate some of that fear, Spencer said.

Blondin won a grant under the NIH's Small Business Innovation Research program. It was the first time executives had applied for the grant, Spencer said.

The money will help fund the earliest stages of development for the test, Spencer said. Researchers will have to determine how to turn their knowledge of a particular biomarker into a blood test that reliably measures tumor death.

Blondin Bioscience is exploring a relatively new realm of medical technology called cell-free DNA. A similar technology has led to new prenatal diagnostic tests that check bits of fetal DNA in the mother's blood for genetic abnormalities.

Liquid biopsies measure bits of cancer in the DNA to check on the progress of certain cancers.

At first, Spencer said the blood test would be used in conjunction with scans to assess treatment progress.
The grant funds research on testing related to prostate cancer, but Spencer said the test could potentially apply to other solid-tumor cancers. Certain types of breast cancer have many treatment options, and the quick test could help doctors hone in on the most effective. The research funded by the NIH will only focus on prostate cancer.

"If the science works, this is a game-changer," Spencer said. "You have that fear of the unknown, the waiting. To be able to come back in three days to find out if treatment is working, you're taking away that unknown."

Source > al