Detecting cancer four years before conventional diagnosis

Announcing a big move for Dale affecting his family, his employer, his colleagues, and his friends Note: This article originally appeared on LinkedIn. The magic wand of early detection Several years ago at a meeting with sales management, someone asked a provocative question: “If you had a magic wand, what would you ask for?” If … Read more

Observations from American Association for Cancer Research 2018 #AACR18

It is something of a tradition for me to give some reviews of notable presentations from past AACR conferences. For example, here’s one that I did while at SeraCare for #AACR16, here’s one from #AACR15, and another one here from #AACR14. (Briefly looking for highlights from 2017, well it looks like something is remiss!) I’ve had … Read more

Cancer immunotherapy and a clinical trial dilemma

There is a numbers problem, and a biomarker one as well. Annually the worldwide cancer drug market is on the order of $110 Billion, and individual immuno-oncology drugs cost the US healthcare system on the order of $100K to $150K per year. With such large financial incentives, there are currently over 900 existing clinical trials at clinicaltrials.gov … Read more

The immune system and cancer immunotherapy

A ‘gold rush’ multi-billion dollar business, three targets, four cancer drugs, four antibody-based companion diagnostic tests, sixteen FDA approvals The human immune system is remarkable. When you think about the preponderance of death by infectious disease throughout history, the top two causes of death in 1900 was influenza and pneumonia, followed by tuberculosis, at 202 … Read more