Collaboration to hunt for cell death biomarkers

Research collaboration

Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT), the commercialisation arm of the charity Cancer Research UK, is collaborating with Manchester University in forming an alliance with AstraZeneca to develop blood biomarkers for monitoring the effectiveness of cancer drugs.

The alliance will look biomarkers that indicate the occurrence of tumour cell death using special pharmacodynamic assays. CRT has exclusive rights to commercialise novel biomarkers identified in the course of the three-year research collaboration. The collaboration includes support for five full-time research scientists and builds on the clinical pharmacology fellowship programme announced by CRT and the university in November 2006.

Professor Andrew Hughes, Clinical Director of Discovery Medicine, AstraZeneca, said “Tumour cell death is the final event which we seek for many of our molecularly targeted agents. If we can measure this event in a blood sample rather than from a tumour biopsy it minimises the intervention for the patient and maximises the opportunity of detecting what is likely to be a dynamic event, by allowing for repeat sampling.”

Effective biomarkers can support drug development in several ways: they can be used to demonstrate proof of mechanism, by showing that the target of a drug is modulated; help in selecting the drug dose and schedule; and contribute to clinical decisions regarding patient management.