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Nuclear medicine treatment cures lethal form of ovarian cancer in preclinical setting

Reston, VA—A new 225Ac-DOTA-based pre-targeted radioimmunotherapy (PRIT) system has been shown to cure a highly lethal form of advanced intraperitoneal…

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Reston, VA—A new 225Ac-DOTA-based pre-targeted radioimmunotherapy (PRIT) system has been shown to cure a highly lethal form of advanced intraperitoneal ovarian cancer in a preclinical setting with minimal side effects. Targeting the HER2 protein, which is commonly expressed in ovarian cancer, the therapy (anti-HER2 225Ac-PRIT) is a potential treatment for the otherwise incurable disease. This research was published in the September issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Credit: Images created by S. Monette, Laboratory of Comparative Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Rockefeller University, New York, New York.

Reston, VA—A new 225Ac-DOTA-based pre-targeted radioimmunotherapy (PRIT) system has been shown to cure a highly lethal form of advanced intraperitoneal ovarian cancer in a preclinical setting with minimal side effects. Targeting the HER2 protein, which is commonly expressed in ovarian cancer, the therapy (anti-HER2 225Ac-PRIT) is a potential treatment for the otherwise incurable disease. This research was published in the September issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal ovarian cancer and frequently presents as advanced-stage disease, such as peritoneal carcinomatosis, where disease has spread throughout the peritoneal cavity. Advanced-stage disease is associated with a poor prognosis and a five-year overall survival ranging from 18 to 46 percent. Most patients die because of extensive peritoneal disease burden and malignant bowel obstruction.

“Due to the explosion of immune and targeted therapies in the past few decades—particularly those targeting HER2—there is increasing interest in the potential role of alternative, more innovative therapies to cure epithelial ovarian cancer,” said Sarah M. Cheal, PhD, of the Molecular Imaging Innovations Institute in the Department of Radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, New York. “In this study, we adapted our PRIT system to target HER2 in epithelial ovarian cancer and explored whether this could effectively treat the disease without significant toxicity.”

The preclinical study included five groups of eight to 10 nude mice, each bearing peritoneal carcinomatosis tumors. Two groups of mice were treated with either one or two cycles of anti-HER2 225Ac-PRIT; the other groups received alternative or no treatments and were used as controls. Weekly weights and tumor progression were monitored for up to 154 days.

Tumors spread rapidly in untreated mice, leading to a median survival of approximately four months. When treated with one or two cycles of anti-HER2 225Ac-PRIT, however, median survival was not reached after 154 days. At the end of the study, 75 percent of mice in the anti-HER2 225Ac-PRIT treatment groups were confirmed to be clinically cured. All treatments were well tolerated by the mice.

“In this study we achieved high potency with anti-HER2 225Ac-PRIT while maintaining an acceptable safety profile. These findings suggest that when scaled to human patients, we can achieve curative tumor radiation-absorbed doses without major normal organ toxicity” stated Steven M. Larson, MD, of the Department of Radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“Furthermore,” stated Nai-Kong V. Cheung, MD, PhD, of the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, “since DOTA-based PRIT is modular it can be adapted to other cancers and next generation PRIT using SADA (Self-Assembling DisAssembling Antibody) with potential for broad applications for compartmental (e.g. peritoneal) as well as systemic theranostics in oncology.”

This study was made available online in June 2023.

The authors of “Efficacy of HER2-Targeted Intraperitoneal 225Ac α-Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy for Small-Volume Ovarian Peritoneal Carcinomatosis” include Sebastian K. Chung, Christopher S. Chandler, Garrett M. Nash, and Andrea Cercek, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Daniela Burnes Vargas, Shin H. Seo, Blesida Punzalan and Mitesh Patel, Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Sumudu Katugampola and Roger W. Howell, Division of Radiation Research, Department of Radiology and Center for Cell Signaling, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; Darren R. Veach and Michael R. McDevitt, Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, and Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York; Brett A. Vaughn and Sarah M. Cheal, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, and Molecular Pharmacology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Sara S. Rinne, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, and Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Hong Xu, Hong-Fen Guo, and Nai-Kong V, Cheung, Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Pat B. Zanzonico, Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Sébastien Monette, Laboratory of Comparative Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, and Rockefeller University, New York, New York; Guangbin Yang and Ouathek Ouerfelli, Organic Synthesis Core Facility, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York; Edward K. Fung, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York; and Steven M. Larson, Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, and Molecular Pharmacology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.

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Please visit the SNMMI Media Center for more information about molecular imaging and precision imaging. To schedule an interview with the researchers, please contact Rebecca Maxey at (703) 652-6772 or rmaxey@snmmi.org.

About JNM and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) is the world’s leading nuclear medicine, molecular imaging and theranostics journal, accessed 15 million times each year by practitioners around the globe, providing them with the information they need to advance this rapidly expanding field. Current and past issues of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org.

JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine and molecular imaging—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, visit www.snmmi.org.

 

Journal

Journal of Nuclear Medicine

DOI

10.2967/jnumed.122.265095

Article Title

Efficacy of HER2-Targeted Intraperitoneal 225Ac a-Pretargeted Radioimmunotherapy for Small-Volume Ovarian Peritoneal Carcinomatosis

Article Publication Date

1-Sep-2023

COI Statement

This research was funded in part by the Hedvig Hricak Chair in Radiology (to Steven Larson); the Enid A. Haupt Chair (to Nai-Kong Cheung); the Center for Targeted Radioimmunotherapy and Theranostics, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy of MSKCC (to Steven Larson); and Mr. William H. Goodwin and Mrs. Alice Goodwin and the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research and the Experimental Therapeutics Center of MSKCC (to Steven Larson). Steven Larson was also supported in part by P50-CA86438. This study also received support from R01-CA233896 (to Sarah Cheal). We also acknowledge P30-CA008748 for use of the Tri-Institutional Laboratory of Comparative Pathology, MSKCC, WCM, and Rockefeller University, New York, NY; technical services provided by the MSKCC Small-Animal Imaging Core Facility and Laboratory of Comparative Pathology; as well as the Molecular Cytology Core Facility. Both MSKCC and Nai-Kong Cheung have financial interest in Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc., Abpro-Labs, and Lallemand-Biotec Pharmacon. Nai-Kong Cheung reports receiving commercial research grants from Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc., and Abpro-Labs. Nai-Kong Cheung was named as inventor on multiple patents filed by MSKCC, including those licensed to Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc., Lallemand-Biotec Pharmacon, and Abpro-Labs. Nai-Kong Cheung is a scientific advisory board member for Eureka Therapeutics. Nai-Kong Cheung, Steven Larson, and Sarah Cheal were named as inventors in the following patent applications relating to GPA33: SK2014-074, SK2015-091, SK2017-079, SK2018-045, SK2014-116, SK2016-052, and SK2018-068 filed by MSK. Steven Larson reports receiving commercial research grants from Genentech, Inc., WILEX AG, Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; holding ownership interest/equity in Elucida Oncology, Inc., and Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc.; and holding stock in ImaginAb, Inc. Steven Larson is the inventor and owner of issued patents both currently unlicensed and licensed by MSKCC to Samus Therapeutics, Inc., Elucida Oncology, Inc., and Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc. Steven Larson serves or has served as a consultant to Cynvec LLC, Eli Lilly & Co., Prescient Therapeutics Limited, Advanced Innovative Partners, LLC, Gerson Lehrman Group, Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc., and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Guangbin Yang and Ouathek Ouerfelli are listed as inventors and receive royalties from patents that were filed by MSKCC. Ouathek Ouerfelli is an unpaid member of the scientific advisory board of Angiogenex and owns shares in Angiogenex. Andrea Cercek reports receiving research funding from GSK, Seagen, and Inspirna and is a member of the advisory board of Bayer, GSK, Merck, Janssen, G1 Therapeutics, and Seagen

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February Employment Situation

By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000…

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19 hours ago

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March 9, 2024

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By Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert

The establishment data from the BLS showed a 275,000 increase in payroll employment for February, outpacing the 230,000 average over the previous 12 months. The payroll data for January and December were revised down by a total of 167,000. The private sector added 223,000 new jobs, the largest gain since May of last year.

Temporary help services employment continues a steep decline after a sharp post-pandemic rise.

Average hours of work increased from 34.2 to 34.3. The increase, along with the 223,000 private employment increase led to a hefty increase in total hours of 5.6% at an annualized rate, also the largest increase since May of last year.

The establishment report, once again, beat “expectations;” the WSJ survey of economists was 198,000. Other than the downward revisions, mentioned above, another bit of negative news was a smallish increase in wage growth, from $34.52 to $34.57.

The household survey shows that the labor force increased 150,000, a drop in employment of 184,000 and an increase in the number of unemployed persons of 334,000. The labor force participation rate held steady at 62.5, the employment to population ratio decreased from 60.2 to 60.1 and the unemployment rate increased from 3.66 to 3.86. Remember that the unemployment rate is the number of unemployed relative to the labor force (the number employed plus the number unemployed). Consequently, the unemployment rate can go up if the number of unemployed rises holding fixed the labor force, or if the labor force shrinks holding the number unemployed unchanged. An increase in the unemployment rate is not necessarily a bad thing: it may reflect a strong labor market drawing “marginally attached” individuals from outside the labor force. Indeed, there was a 96,000 decline in those workers.

Earlier in the week, the BLS announced JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) data for January. There isn’t much to report here as the job openings changed little at 8.9 million, the number of hires and total separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.3 million, respectively.

As has been the case for the last couple of years, the number of job openings remains higher than the number of unemployed persons.

Also earlier in the week the BLS announced that productivity increased 3.2% in the 4th quarter with output rising 3.5% and hours of work rising 0.3%.

The bottom line is that the labor market continues its surprisingly (to some) strong performance, once again proving stronger than many had expected. This strength makes it difficult to justify any interest rate cuts soon, particularly given the recent inflation spike.

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Mortgage rates fall as labor market normalizes

Jobless claims show an expanding economy. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.

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March 8, 2024

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Everyone was waiting to see if this week’s jobs report would send mortgage rates higher, which is what happened last month. Instead, the 10-year yield had a muted response after the headline number beat estimates, but we have negative job revisions from previous months. The Federal Reserve’s fear of wage growth spiraling out of control hasn’t materialized for over two years now and the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%. For now, we can say the labor market isn’t tight anymore, but it’s also not breaking.

The key labor data line in this expansion is the weekly jobless claims report. Jobless claims show an expanding economy that has not lost jobs yet. We will only be in a recession once jobless claims exceed 323,000 on a four-week moving average.

From the Fed: In the week ended March 2, initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits were flat, at 217,000. The four-week moving average declined slightly by 750, to 212,250


Below is an explanation of how we got here with the labor market, which all started during COVID-19.

1. I wrote the COVID-19 recovery model on April 7, 2020, and retired it on Dec. 9, 2020. By that time, the upfront recovery phase was done, and I needed to model out when we would get the jobs lost back.

2. Early in the labor market recovery, when we saw weaker job reports, I doubled and tripled down on my assertion that job openings would get to 10 million in this recovery. Job openings rose as high as to 12 million and are currently over 9 million. Even with the massive miss on a job report in May 2021, I didn’t waver.

Currently, the jobs openings, quit percentage and hires data are below pre-COVID-19 levels, which means the labor market isn’t as tight as it once was, and this is why the employment cost index has been slowing data to move along the quits percentage.  

2-US_Job_Quits_Rate-1-2

3. I wrote that we should get back all the jobs lost to COVID-19 by September of 2022. At the time this would be a speedy labor market recovery, and it happened on schedule, too

Total employment data

4. This is the key one for right now: If COVID-19 hadn’t happened, we would have between 157 million and 159 million jobs today, which would have been in line with the job growth rate in February 2020. Today, we are at 157,808,000. This is important because job growth should be cooling down now. We are more in line with where the labor market should be when averaging 140K-165K monthly. So for now, the fact that we aren’t trending between 140K-165K means we still have a bit more recovery kick left before we get down to those levels. 




From BLS: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 275,000 in February, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in government, in food services and drinking places, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing.

Here are the jobs that were created and lost in the previous month:

IMG_5092

In this jobs report, the unemployment rate for education levels looks like this:

  • Less than a high school diploma: 6.1%
  • High school graduate and no college: 4.2%
  • Some college or associate degree: 3.1%
  • Bachelor’s degree or higher: 2.2%
IMG_5093_320f22

Today’s report has continued the trend of the labor data beating my expectations, only because I am looking for the jobs data to slow down to a level of 140K-165K, which hasn’t happened yet. I wouldn’t categorize the labor market as being tight anymore because of the quits ratio and the hires data in the job openings report. This also shows itself in the employment cost index as well. These are key data lines for the Fed and the reason we are going to see three rate cuts this year.

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Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Last month we though that the January…

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March 8, 2024

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Inside The Most Ridiculous Jobs Report In History: Record 1.2 Million Immigrant Jobs Added In One Month

Last month we though that the January jobs report was the "most ridiculous in recent history" but, boy, were we wrong because this morning the Biden department of goalseeked propaganda (aka BLS) published the February jobs report, and holy crap was that something else. Even Goebbels would blush. 

What happened? Let's take a closer look.

On the surface, it was (almost) another blockbuster jobs report, certainly one which nobody expected, or rather just one bank out of 76 expected. Starting at the top, the BLS reported that in February the US unexpectedly added 275K jobs, with just one research analyst (from Dai-Ichi Research) expecting a higher number.

Some context: after last month's record 4-sigma beat, today's print was "only" 3 sigma higher than estimates. Needless to say, two multiple sigma beats in a row used to only happen in the USSR... and now in the US, apparently.

Before we go any further, a quick note on what last month we said was "the most ridiculous jobs report in recent history": it appears the BLS read our comments and decided to stop beclowing itself. It did that by slashing last month's ridiculous print by over a third, and revising what was originally reported as a massive 353K beat to just 229K,  a 124K revision, which was the biggest one-month negative revision in two years!

Of course, that does not mean that this month's jobs print won't be revised lower: it will be, and not just that month but every other month until the November election because that's the only tool left in the Biden admin's box: pretend the economic and jobs are strong, then revise them sharply lower the next month, something we pointed out first last summer and which has not failed to disappoint once.

To be fair, not every aspect of the jobs report was stellar (after all, the BLS had to give it some vague credibility). Take the unemployment rate, after flatlining between 3.4% and 3.8% for two years - and thus denying expectations from Sahm's Rule that a recession may have already started - in February the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 3.9%, the highest since February 2022 (with Black unemployment spiking by 0.3% to 5.6%, an indicator which the Biden admin will quickly slam as widespread economic racism or something).

And then there were average hourly earnings, which after surging 0.6% MoM in January (since revised to 0.5%) and spooking markets that wage growth is so hot, the Fed will have no choice but to delay cuts, in February the number tumbled to just 0.1%, the lowest in two years...

... for one simple reason: last month's average wage surge had nothing to do with actual wages, and everything to do with the BLS estimate of hours worked (which is the denominator in the average wage calculation) which last month tumbled to just 34.1 (we were led to believe) the lowest since the covid pandemic...

... but has since been revised higher while the February print rose even more, to 34.3, hence why the latest average wage data was once again a product not of wages going up, but of how long Americans worked in any weekly period, in this case higher from 34.1 to 34.3, an increase which has a major impact on the average calculation.

While the above data points were examples of some latent weakness in the latest report, perhaps meant to give it a sheen of veracity, it was everything else in the report that was a problem starting with the BLS's latest choice of seasonal adjustments (after last month's wholesale revision), which have gone from merely laughable to full clownshow, as the following comparison between the monthly change in BLS and ADP payrolls shows. The trend is clear: the Biden admin numbers are now clearly rising even as the impartial ADP (which directly logs employment numbers at the company level and is far more accurate), shows an accelerating slowdown.

But it's more than just the Biden admin hanging its "success" on seasonal adjustments: when one digs deeper inside the jobs report, all sorts of ugly things emerge... such as the growing unprecedented divergence between the Establishment (payrolls) survey and much more accurate Household (actual employment) survey. To wit, while in January the BLS claims 275K payrolls were added, the Household survey found that the number of actually employed workers dropped for the third straight month (and 4 in the past 5), this time by 184K (from 161.152K to 160.968K).

This means that while the Payrolls series hits new all time highs every month since December 2020 (when according to the BLS the US had its last month of payrolls losses), the level of Employment has not budged in the past year. Worse, as shown in the chart below, such a gaping divergence has opened between the two series in the past 4 years, that the number of Employed workers would need to soar by 9 million (!) to catch up to what Payrolls claims is the employment situation.

There's more: shifting from a quantitative to a qualitative assessment, reveals just how ugly the composition of "new jobs" has been. Consider this: the BLS reports that in February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Well, that's great... until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).

Here is a summary of the labor composition in the past year: all the new jobs have been part-time jobs!

But wait there's even more, because now that the primary season is over and we enter the heart of election season and political talking points will be thrown around left and right, especially in the context of the immigration crisis created intentionally by the Biden administration which is hoping to import millions of new Democratic voters (maybe the US can hold the presidential election in Honduras or Guatemala, after all it is their citizens that will be illegally casting the key votes in November), what we find is that in February, the number of native-born workers tumbled again, sliding by a massive 560K to just 129.807 million. Add to this the December data, and we get a near-record 2.4 million plunge in native-born workers in just the past 3 months (only the covid crash was worse)!

The offset? A record 1.2 million foreign-born (read immigrants, both legal and illegal but mostly illegal) workers added in February!

Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 6 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers...

Source: St Louis Fed FRED Native Born and Foreign Born

... but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since June 2018!

This is a huge issue - especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the southwest border...

... and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened - i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin.

Which is also why Biden's handlers will do everything in their power to insure there is no official recession before November... and why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose. Until then, however, expect the jobs numbers to get even more ridiculous.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 13:30

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