BIO 2025: Tackling Metastatic Tumors with Radiotherapeutics
Ahead of BIO 2025, The Pharma Navigator sits down with David Bejker from Affibody, to discover more about radiopharmaceuticals, their benefits within the oncology field, and the latest developments with the company’s radiotherapeutic candidate.
Radiotherapeutics have been gaining traction within industry thanks to their ability to target cancer cells without causing the collateral damage usually experienced with radiation therapy where beams of radiation are delivered outside the body (1). “I think it makes sense to step back when you talk about radiotherapy and think about the fact that for close to two centuries, we have been treating cancers with radiation,” explains David Bejker, President and CEO, Affibody — a Swedish biotechnology company.
“So, we actually know that a good way of treating a cancer is cut it out, radiate it, and then do some sort of medical/pharmaceutical treatment on it,” Bejker continues. “What radiopharmaceuticals actually do is try to take external radiation and put it internally into the tumor, which is good for metastatic diseases.”
Treating small or multiple metastases can be complicated with an external radiation beam, Bejker points out. When using a radiotherapeutic, the radiation is being targeted into the tumor cells, which means the potential escape mechanisms for the tumor are removed, he adds.
“What you’re basically doing is introducing a particle that destroys DNA, that destroys part of the cell, breaking it open,” Bejker remarks. “This creates the opportunity to make the ‘cold’ tumor ‘hot’ from a kind of immunological perspective, and just do damage to that area.”
Affibody is progressing a radiotherapeutic candidate that targets HER2-expressing breast cancer through clinical development to meet the huge unmet medical need in metastatic breast cancer. “What we are trying to build is an alternative to go first, after the leading therapies, where we offer a different mode of action,” Bejker says. This therapy is a beta emitter based on 177Lu, that uses ionizing radiation to radiate the tumor, he specifies.
Click the video above to view the full interview
Reference
National Cancer Institute. Radiopharmaceuticals: Radiation Therapy Enters the Molecular Age. Article, Oct. 26, 2020.
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