Merck Will Engage Dr. Meriem Sefta, And Owkin's AI, To Build Out Diagnostic Tests For Various Gastric, Bile Duct And Endometrial Cancers -- Sharpening Keytruda's Focus.

The idea here -- since Keytruda is such a pricey therapeutic -- is to more closely predict who will likely benefit most from getting the immuno-oncology therapy. [Patients with tumors that express lots of PD-1 are prime candidates, in this regard.]

Owkin's AI shows promise to greatly sharpen the predictive diagnostics, in various gastric cancers -- as the platform has already been demonstrated to work well in colorectal cancers, at predicting therapy candidates.

The age of truly personalized" cancer panels is upon us. And in the EU health systems, regulations dictate that patients be screened for expression of promising proteins before spending the perhaps $200,000 in a year -- for a course of pembrolizumab. So having the Owkin diagnostic available will more readily allow oncologists in the UK and EU to prescribe Keytruda (with solid evidence that a given patient will see a robust benefit from the therapy) -- now, in gastric cancer settings. Here's a bit, from Fierce:

. . .In patients with colorectal cancer, finding out a tumor’s level of microsatellite instability can be essential in guiding treatment. Representing defects in a cell’s ability to correct errors in its DNA, those with high levels can see fewer benefits from chemotherapy, but better outcomes when matched with targeted immunotherapies -- such as Merck’s mainstay immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda.

Testing for high status, known as MSI-H, is now recommended by international cancer treatment guidelines -- with about 15% of colorectal cancer patients carrying the biomarker -- however, according to Owkin, that screening is not typically performed in the collaboration’s four cancer targets.

“It is clear that there is a need for AI diagnostics that can both ease bottlenecks and resource pressures while also ramping up biomarker testing to match patients with optimal treatments,” Owkin’s chief diagnostics officer, Meriem Sefta, said in a statement. . . .

Now you know. . . escaping the icy air tomorrow afternoon -- for the cacti, for a month. But first, baby-girl's second grade Holiday Pageant tonight. . . grin. Whoosh!

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