OncoHost has secured a €2.5m ($2.8m) grant from the EIC Transition Programme, an initiative under the EU’s broader Horizon Europe funding programme, to develop a novel biomarker capable of predicting cancer patient responses to immunotherapy.
Known as NeutroFlow, Israeli biotech OncoHost is leading the biomarker’s development alongside consortium partners including Heidelberg University Hospital and the European Institute of Oncology (EIO).
EIO professor Francesco Bertolini said the funding represented a “unique and precious” opportunity to translate preclinical data into clinically validated biomarkers for selecting the most appropriate therapy for cancer patients and to mitigate unnecessary side effects.
NeutroFlow is being developed to identify a subset of cells found in the blood called Ly6Ehi neutrophils, given the high expression level of the Ly6E marker on the cells’ surface. It will support the prediction of immunotherapy responses in melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and triple-negative breast cancer.
New research published in Cancer Cell found that Ly6Ehi neutrophil cells can serve as a strong pre-treatment biomarker for response to Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), a cancer treatment approach intended to enhance the body's immune system to fight different cancer types.
OncoHost said that NeutroFlow will take the form of a simple, point-of-care test and that the neutrophil sub-population will be easily detected with flow cytometry, an instrument readily available in most medical centres.
Heidelberg University Hospital professor Petros Christopoulos commented: “We are looking forward to helping advance Neutroflow as the first cell-based immunotherapy biomarker into daily clinical practice to further personalise our patient care.”
According to OncoHost, although ICIs have seen much success, their effectiveness has been largely confined to a subset of patients. This emphasises the importance of predictive biomarkers in clinical decision-making to gain a clearer understanding of treatment response.
OncoHost CEO Ofer Sharon commented: “As the absence of reliable and highly predictive biomarkers continues to be a significant challenge in immuno-oncology, we are consistently driving innovation and expanding our proprietary profiling platform, PROphet, to address additional indications.”
