Lead investigator: U. Margaretha Wallon, PhD
Collaborators: Paul B. Gilman, MD and George C. Prendergast, PhD

Unmet need

Delayed CINV (chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting) is experienced by up to 40% of cancer patients who receive emetogenic chemotherapy as a standard of care, especially for common colon, lung, breast, ovarian, and head and neck cancers. Nausea is the side effect most feared by cancer patients, but it is a subjective symptom with no objective measurement to predict or monitor. No real-time methods have been made available to monitor the core metabolic system that influences the occurrence of delayed CINV in individual patients.

Delayed CINV cases increase emergency room visits and strongly influence a patient’s overall health and social life, negatively impacting family, work and treatment adherence. While use of anti-emetic drugs has improved care, delayed CINV still affects many who receive emetogenic chemotherapy.

Opportunity

A multidisciplinary team of LIMR scientists and oncologists created a new proprietary blood test, called MyNauseaRisk test, that monitors a cancer patient’s core metabolic system and can identify those who are at high risk for delayed CINV. This test is predictive before chemotherapy is administered, enabling appropriate prophylactic care beforehand.

The global market for CINV was valued at US $1.67B in 2015 and is expected to reach $2.66B by 2022, according to the market information resource Allied Market Research.

Unique attributes

LIMR’s technology detects a naturally occurring variation among individuals in the glutathione recycling efficiency in red blood cells, which the LIMR team discovered is correlated with the incidence of patient-reported delayed CINV.

Clinical applications

Since this metabolic marker is intrinsic to a patient's physiology, its measurement before chemotherapy is administered can enable an oncologist to tailor more effective prophylactic care for those identified as high-risk individuals.

Stage of development

  • An ongoing clinical trial with four participating medical oncologists at the Lankenau Cancer Center, which is one of only 46 NCI-designated U.S. community cancer centers that treats more than 1,000 analytic cancer cases annually (200 of whom were recruited to the MyNauseaRisk trial since 2016).
  • A validated laboratory test with more than 80% specificity to detect delayed CINV, offering more accuracy than existing clinical algorithms to predict this condition.
  • A published study of more than 60 patients completed in 18 months offering initial proof of concept in lung and colon cancer patients receiving platinum-based highly emetogenic chemotherapy.

Intellectual property

MyNauseaRisk test kit: U.S. Patent No. 9,766,226 (issued Sept 19, 2017).

Collaboration opportunity

Clinical trials to identify patients at risk of delayed nausea as a tool to focus novel anti-emetic strategies on the population of interest. LIMR has outlicensed the technology to MYNARI Biomedical, Fort Washington, PA.

Relevant publications

Contacts

Institutional contact: George C. Prendergast, PhD, LIMR President and CEO, 484.476.8475, prendergast@limr.org

IP manager contact: Heather Rose, PhD, JD, VP of Technology Licensing and Startups, Thomas Jefferson University, 215.503.0770, heather.rose@jefferson.edu