Blog

Jan 23, 2025, 02:32

Susan Galbraith: 5 key trends that have the potential to transform cancer care

Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President in Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“It was a great start to the year last week being in San Francisco at the JPM Healthcare Conference. Being in the home of disruptive ideas is always a good reminder to focus on innovating to make the largest impact. For us AstraZeneca, this means continuing to build momentum by focusing on 5 key trends that have the potential to transform cancer care:

1. Improving on backbone chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimens with novel antibody drug conjugates and radio conjugates
We believe in the potential of ADCs and RCs to improve on systemic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We’re focused on exploring ways to expand the benefits of ADCs to more tumour types through our partner assets and our proprietary ADCs, and on advancing targeted RCs to patients through our acquisition of Fusion.

2. Advancing beyond current immune checkpoint inhibitors and segmenting the IO-sensitive space with the next wave of bispecific IO agents, The next wave of bispecific IO agents has the potential to go beyond current immune checkpoint inhibitors offering more targeted approaches to IO-sensitive cancers based on specific biomarker profiles. Published data show promising efficacy and tolerable safety in early clinical trials of new bispecific antibodies.

3. Transforming the treatment of more liquid and solid tumours with Cell therapy and T-cell engagers, We aim to unlock the potential of cell therapy for more patients, including those with solid tumours.

We are working to overcome the limitations of CAR-T manufacturing and we are building the next-generation of CD8 selective TCEs using our novel TITAN platform, designed for greater specificity and improved tolerability. In the future, there is potential to move from custom therapy to an off-the-shelf model so that these treatments become more accessible.

4. Delivering unprecedented efficacy with novel combinations of new modalities, Attacking cancer from multiple angles with novel combinations has the potential to elicit deeper, more durable responses. For example, ADC or RC plus IO combinations could act as a one-two punch against tumour cells, both directly killing them and helping activate the immune system against them. We are investing in our diverse pipeline, working to a future where individualised combinations become the standard of care

5. Improving long-term outcomes and increasing the chance of cures through early intervention with neoadjuvant and adjuvant combination regimens
Treating cancer as early as possible offers patients the best chance for long-term survival. We’re seeing great progress enabled by technology and improvements in screening and diagnostic practices.

We continue to work on bringing targeted therapies into earlier stages of disease and treatment, particularly the neoadjuvant setting, where we believe there is the greatest potential for improving long-term outcomes and even cures.

I’m proud of the work we’re doing to transform cancer care and energised by all we can achieve in 2025″