Imagion Biosystems Limited and Patrys Limited announced a collaborative research program using their combined technologies to improve brain tumor imaging and diagnosis. Patrys' novel deoxymabs are attracted to the DNA fragments released from dying tumor cells and are able to penetrate and kill tumor cells. The collaboration aims to pair the targeting specificity of the deoxymabs with the imaging capabilities of the MagSense® technology to provide a highly effective imaging agent with high specificity for hard-to-diagnose cancers such as brain cancer.

Preliminary research efforts by Imagion have demonstrated that the Patrys PAT-DX1 molecule can be conjugated to the MagSense® nanoparticles and provide bio-functionality for targeting certain cancer cell lines. Should this further collaborative work provide positive results, Imagion will have an exclusive option to a future license agreement, should it elect to commercialize the imaging agent. Under the current collaboration both parties are bearing their own costs.

Brain tumors are neoplasms arising from cells of the central nervous system (CNS) including primary tumors originating in the brain and secondary tumors arising from metastases to the brain. Secondary brain tumors are significantly more frequent, affecting one in four cancer patients. Of the more than 300,000 individuals afflicted with malignant brain cancer each year globally, less than 25% survive beyond five years.

Conventional MRI has been the standard modality to identify and localize tumors in the brain for many years, but a biopsy is the only definitive way they can be diagnosed and two-thirds of primary brain tumors are benign. A non-invasive imaging method able to specifically identify malignant brain tumors and differentiate from benign disease would address a significant unmet medical need.