Indications

Targeted radiotherapy is a systemic cancer treatment approach of particular utility for advanced and metastasized tumors which are less amenable to surgery and external beam radiotherapy. Treatment of a certain indication requires the overexpression of particular cell-surface molecules that can be used as a target for the delivery of peptide-conjugated radioisotopes. 3BP develops theranostic radiopharmaceuticals for a wide range of cancer indications with high unmet medical need.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a very aggressive cancer that is typically discovered when it has already metastasized to distant organs. Median survival after diagnosis is less than a year, and current chemotherapeutic treatments lack efficacy while eliciting severe side effects. 3BP-227 / IPN01087 specifically targets the neoplastic cells of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and may thus slow disease progression by delivering cytotoxic radiation only to the cancer cells. Its target neurotensin receptor 1 is also expressed in tumors of other indications, and is therefore also tested for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Most tumors recruit so-called cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) to their scaffold in order to form a solid mass. Since these CAFs express target molecules at their cell surface, they can be used as a pan-tumor target allowing the treatment of a wide variety of indications such as breast, colon, pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancer plus rarer indications such as sarcomas. FAP-2286 has been developed to treat a broad selection of tumor types, and clinical trials are being designed to include several tumor indications with high medical need.

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) have been among the first indications being treated with targeted radiopharmaceuticals. In particular somatostatin receptor (sstr) is expressed by NETs and used as drug target. However, there is a significant proportion of NET patients that do not express sufficient sstr on their tumors to be able to benefit from currently available treatments. To provide these patients with a radiopharmaceutical treatment option, 3BP has developed a GIP receptor (Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide receptor) -targeted radiopharmaceutical that will provide radiopharmaceutical treatment options to currently underserved NET patients.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults and also typically discovered in an advanced stage of the disease. It can be treated with radiopharmaceuticals targeted to carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) which is constitutively expressed in many of these tumors. Since CAIX is expressed in many tumors when the oxygen supply to the tumor cell decreases with increasing size of the tumor, many other patients with tumors such as colorectal cancer or mesothelioma could potentially benefit from a CAIX-targeted radiopharmaceutical.