The National Cancer Institute (NCI) seeks parties to license software for modeling the targeted delivery of anti-cancer agents in solid tumors.

The software models the permeability and concentration of intravenously administered antibody anti-cancer agent conjugates in solid tumors.  The models can be used to determine optimal dosing regimen of a therapeutic in a particular cancer type.  Thirty factors that affect delivery rates and efficiencies are analyzed as variables in generating the models.

Bacterial spores can be modified to display molecules of interest, including drugs, immunogenic peptides, antibodies and other functional proteins of interest (such as enzymes).  The resulting engineered bacterial spores can provide many useful functions such as the treatment of infections, use as an adjuvant for the delivery of vaccines, and the enzymatic degradation of environmental pollutants.

CD276 (also called B7-H3) is a pan-cancer antigen expressed in multiple solid tumors and an emerging cancer target. CD276 protein is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and brain tumors (such as neuroblastoma) – making it an ideal target for cancer therapy. 

Investigators at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have isolated a panel of anti-CD276 single domain antibodies (also known as nanobodies) from novel camel and rabbit single domain (VHH) libraries by phage display. 

Neuroblastomas are the most common extracranial solid tumors in pediatric patients, with 700-800 new cases annually in the United States. Metastatic neuroblastomas have a five-year survival rate of 50% and account for 15% of all pediatric cancer deaths. As such, more effective treatments against high-risk neuroblastomas are urgently needed.

Mesothelin (MSLN) is an excellent target for antibody-based therapies of cancer because of its high expression in many malignancies but lack of expression on essential normal tissues. Unfortunately, a large fragment of MSLN is shed from cancer cells, causing the currently available anti-MSLN antibodies (and immunoconjugates thereof) which bind to the shed portion of MSLN to quickly lose their therapeutic effectiveness over time. Indeed, the shed portion of MSLN can act as a decoy for these antibodies, further limiting them from reaching and destroying tumor cells.

Mesothelin is a cell surface protein that is an excellent target for immunotherapy because of its limited expression on normal tissues and its high expression on many cancers, including mesothelioma, cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic, ovarian, lung, stomach, bile duct, and triple-negative breast cancer.

The National Cancer Institute seeks parties to license human monoclonal antibodies and immunoconjugates and co-develop, evaluate, and/or commercialize large-scale antibody production and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) xenograft mouse models. An advantage of these monoclonal antibodies as a potential therapeutic is their specificity, which would reduce deleterious side-effects. HCC is the most common form of liver cancer, and is among the more deadly cancers in the world. There is a need for new treatments that can be successfully applied to a large population of patients.

Human mesothelin is overexpressed by various cancers such as synovial sarcoma, mesothelioma, and ovarian, lung, esophageal, and gastric cancers. This selective expression on certain cancers suggests that mesothelin is an excellent target for anticancer therapeutics. However, a large fragment (“the shed portion”) of mesothelin is constantly shed from cells, and all current anti-mesothelin antibodies bind to the shed portion.

Patients receiving immunotoxin cancer therapy are less likely to experience the deleterious side-effects associated with non-discriminate therapies such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Unfortunately, the continued administration of immunotoxins often leads to a reduced patient response due to the formation of neutralizing antibodies against immunogenic epitopes contained within Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE). 

Mesothelin is a cell surface protein that is highly expressed in aggressive cancers such as malignant mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, bile duct carcinoma and gastric cancer. As a result, mesothelin is an excellent candidate for tumor targeted immunotherapeutics. However, the antibodies against mesothelin that are available for clinical trials are of murine origin. These antibodies have the potential to elicit immune responses in patients, which may adversely affect the ability to provide patients with repeated doses.