Worldwide, there are 3.6 million people living with blood cancers as of 2020.1 And while incredible advances have been made to improve care, blood cancers remain some of the most complex and difficult-to-treat diseases we face today.
Despite its challenges, haematology is arguably one of the most promising areas for scientific discovery, and AstraZeneca’s Benjamin Moutier, MS, is at the vanguard of this exciting new frontier.
As the company’s vice president and global franchise head of haematology, Moutier is deeply involved in investigating novel treatments in haematological malignancies with high unmet need, including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
With its groundbreaking research and a patient-first approach to discovering innovative solutions and treatments, AstraZeneca has continued to demonstrate its dedication to the blood cancer community, particularly in recent years.
“We’re expanding our haematology footprint by dedicating ourselves to the advancement of cutting-edge science in blood cancers to personalise treatment, improve patient outcomes and change what it means to live with cancer,” says Moutier.
He affirms, “The progress we’ve made in haematology as an industry over the past decade is impressive and has already saved many lives, but we know the work is only just beginning. Building on our heritage in oncology, AstraZeneca is committed to finding new ways to transform standards of care and offer better treatment options for people affected by blood cancers.”
“The foundation of our approach to transforming haematology treatment is building platforms that allow us to simultaneously develop multiple investigational therapies, using different targets and running several clinical trials in parallel. In particular, we made strong progresses recently on three key innovative platforms: antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), T-cell engagers and cell therapy.
We’ve seen the potential of ADCs through AstraZeneca’s work in solid tumours and are now exploring the difference ADCs could make within haematological malignancies," says Moutier.
“We are developing an emerging treatment approach utilising T-cell engagers. T-cell engagers are antibodies engineered to redirect the immune system’s T-cells to recognise and kill cancer cells. Cell therapy is another avenue we’ve ventured down where we could potentially offer an off-the-shelf approach by giving cells new immune properties they may typically not have.”
Accelerating the breakthroughs of tomorrow
Haematology is comprised of more than 150 individual blood cancers,2 and their heterogeneous nature makes them exceedingly difficult to treat.3 Moutier and his team aspire to usher in a new era of care for this diverse, complex family of diseases and the people affected by them—one that is defined by precision medicine.
“More and more, we’re moving to evolve the science to where personalised treatment is the goal: giving the right treatment to the right patient at the right time to fight their specific disease.”
In addition to discovering new treatments, the company is constantly looking at ways to improve patient outcomes by optimising its commercialised medicines.
Currently, AstraZeneca researchers are working to better understand and address treatment resistance patterns in some types of chronic blood cancers based on the hypothesis that it may help determine optimal treatment sequences.
A decade defined by bold ambition
Breakthroughs, such as those toward which AstraZeneca is striving, could have a cascading effect across blood cancer outcomes and could profoundly impact patient care. AstraZeneca’s goal is to delay, or even prevent disease progression, and enable patients to remain on convenient, tolerable treatment options.
“We’re ideally positioned with a broad pipeline of innovative investigational therapies using novel targets and mechanisms that we’re working to bring to market over the next ten years.”
That most people today either know someone close to them who has battled cancer or themselves have confronted the disease is a staggering reality. It’s one for which Moutier and the team at AstraZeneca refuse to settle.
References
1. World Health Organization. Worldwide Cancer Fact Sheet 2020 (Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence by cancer site). https://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/populations/900-world-fact-sheets.pdf. Accessed November 2023.
2. Abdul-Ghafar J, Seo KJ, Jung HR, et al. Validation of a Machine Learning Expert Supporting System, ImmunoGenius, Using Immunohistochemistry Results of 3000 Patients with Lymphoid Neoplasms. Diagnostics (Basel). 2023 Mar 31;13(7):1308. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics13071308.
3. Chu MP, Kriangkum J, Venner CP, et al. Addressing heterogeneity of individual blood cancers: the need for single cell analysis. Cell Biol Toxicol. 2017 Apr;33(2):83-97. doi: 10.1007/s10565-016-9367-4. Epub 2016 Oct 19. PMID: 27761761.
