Epigenetic biomarkers predict immunotherapy success

At the ASH Summit on Emerging Immunotherapies for Hematologic Diseases, the company presented data on prognostic blood-based stratifications of patients with a common type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Oxford BioDynamics’ proprietary platform EpiSwitch identifies epigenetic biomarkers that can establish which patients will not benefit from anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 monotherapy. Based on further analysis of more than 126 patients, this validation study demonstrated 94% accuracy in predicting response to the anti-PD-L1 treatment.

Oxford BioDynamics, also demonstrated the ability to identify lymphoma subtypes. This is significant because while Hodgkin lymphomas show good response to immunotherapies, response and efficacy in other lymphomas remain modest at best. Chief Scientific Officer Alexandre Akoulitchev stressed the high demand for molecular biomarkers that can help predict clinical outcomes in immuno-oncology. This technology can help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies bring drugs to the market sooner through personalising drugs to patients most likely to respond, therefore delivering better clinical outcomes, the company stated. 

“We believe that successful epigenetic stratifications of patients using EpiSwitch biomarkers could help improve understanding of the regulatory mechanisms in blood disorders, gain valuable insights into new targets and treatment designs, as well as help improve patients outcomes by supporting clinical decisions on the most appropriate and effective treatment option,” added Akoulitchev.