[February 24, 2015] |
|
Leading Oncology Researchers Address Growing Need for Assessing Tumor Microenvironment in Cancer Research
Key professionals in leading biopharma organizations attended The
International Symposium for Tissue Phenomics™ in October 2014 to
discuss the latest developments in cancer research and big data. Hosted
by Definiens, the
global leader in Tissue Phenomics for oncology diagnostics, the event
drew key industry professionals and featured speakers from cutting edge
organizations such as INSERM, National Cancer Institute, Kimmel Cancer
Center, Providence Health Services, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and
University Medical Center Heidelberg. Presentations highlighted novel,
important approaches in cancer research for the development of companion
diagnostics, analysis of data, and validation of assays used to drive
therapies.
Key takeaways from Symposium presentations include:
-
There is a growing need for assessing and quantifying the tumor
microenvironment and immune system for cancer treatment. As
pharmaceutical companies continue to focus heavily on immunotherapies
in cancer research, understanding the cellular and molecular
mechanisms of the tumor microenvironment is becoming increasingly
important. Quantification of the tumor microenvironment has
implications for biomarker discovery and increased disease
understanding, which in turn supports greater patient stratification
and cancer therapy development, and ultimately personalized medicine.
-
A better understanding of the immunological tumor milieu opens up
various new approaches for specific intrvention. Current studies
on ovarian, melanoma and colorectal cancers are using automated
solutions to analyze and evaluate cell tissues, specifically the
complex relationships of different immune cell subsets with tumor
cells. New approaches in this area can have significant implications
in clinical trials, resulting in more precise predictions in prognosis
of cancer treatment.
-
The genome alone can't define disease. Genomics in isolation
cannot explain disease, how it occurs and how to treat it. While the
genome plays a large role in understanding and treating cancer, it
does not provide a complete picture. Other factors, including tissue
data, must also be taken into account. As tissue data is more closely
connected to the state of the patient, combining it with genomic data
creates the potential to become the most relevant science to develop
diagnostics and therapies, ultimately improving the treatment of
patients.
-
Medicine has lagged behind other industries in the use of big data,
but the need - and possibilities - for a big data approach is growing. The
big data approach is being successfully applied to many industries,
but medicine has been slow to adopt due to the lack of meaningful
digital data available. There is currently not enough data available
in digital form to make an impact on drug discovery and development,
and the biggest data segment - the pixels in tissue images - doesn't
represent value or meaning for data mining tools. However, this will
change in the near future as new technologies emerge that can collect,
correlate and structure data in a meaningful way. As a result, this
advancement in scientific technologies is expected to trigger the next
technical industrial revolution.
"It's an exciting time in the field of cancer research. Research
findings presented at the Symposium point to the need for a better
understanding of tissue and the tumor and its environment, and progress
being made in this area is fueling personalized medicine in clinical
research," said Dr. Gerd Binnig, Founder and Chief Technology Officer,
Definiens. "The role of imaging is redefining the decision-making
process by combining and correlating quantified image data with genomic
information and clinical outcomes, which will help us achieve truly
personalized medicine in oncology."
View presentations from the 2014 International Symposium for Tissue
Phenomics here. For
more information about Tissue Phenomics, visit www.definiens.com.
About Definiens
Definiens is the leading provider of image analysis and data mining
solutions for tissue diagnostics and clinical digital pathology.
Definiens technology provides detailed cell-by-cell readouts from target
structures on tissue slides and allows the correlation of this
information with data derived from other sources, generating new
knowledge and supporting better decisions in research, diagnostics and
therapy. Definiens' Tissue Phenomics approach was awarded the 2013 Frost
and Sullivan Company of the Year Award for Global Tissue Diagnostics and
Pathology Imaging. For more information, please visit: www.definiens.com.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|