MUNICH, GERMANY - May 30, 2017 - Definiens, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, is the leader in Tissue Phenomics® and provider of solutions from biomarker discovery to meaningful diagnostics. Definiens’ research and clinical trial services provide biological insights by deepening the understanding of cancer biology within the immune contexture, to advance the clinical programs of leading global BioPharma organizations.

In oncology, therapeutic strategies have shifted from directly killing cancer cells to recruiting the immune system for that same purpose. Yet, the understanding of underlying disease biology and the mechanisms of action by therapeutic options remains incomplete, preventing optimal patient selection for such therapies. Tissue Phenomics® quantifies the spatial relations of immune and tumor cells within the context of the tissue architecture and tumor heterogeneity, and correlate this information with tissue and patient-associated metadata. The resulting biological insights complement genomics and other data to create the highly valuable patient profiling needed for novel therapies and treatment strategies, enabling truly personalized medicine.

Definiens recently held its annual International Symposium for Tissue Phenomics that hosts industry and academic visionaries who drive immunotherapy to transform healthcare. This is a group of experts that annually comes together to further the understanding of image and data mining by supporting translational immunotherapy and knowledge sharing in a “barn raising” fashion of opinion-leading presentations and discussions. Participants from the leading biopharma organizations in the immuno-oncology field as well as from leading academic medical and research centers having just returned home from the Symposium, were greeted by impressive clinical advancements in immuno-oncology and by exciting news from AstraZeneca regarding their investigational and newly approved immuno-oncology agent.

With new understandings of the importance of assessing the tumor microenvironment, quantitative immunohistochemistry and image analysis are being leveraged by researchers to separate both responders and non-responders to immuno-therapies.  This information may then be leveraged to expand upon or complement patient identification methodologies, such as PD-L1 IHC scoring and assessing tumor mutation burden, to inform and enrich the respective clinical trials. For example, Definiens, in close collaboration with MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, has demonstrated early investigational data that a biomarker signature consisting of PD-L1(+) and CD8(+) cell densities in the tumor area may be predictive of response to, and of survival on, durvalumab in NSCLC patients of a Phase 1/2 study (Althammer S, et al, 2016). The use of Tissue Phenomics® deepens insights and understanding beyond current levels to potentially advance and reduce risk in clinical pipelines.

“By constantly advancing the Tissue Phenomics methodology, we are able to discover novel prognostic and predictive algorithms with superior prediction performance,” said Günter Schmidt, Vice President of Research at Definiens. “Integrating image analysis and clinical data into a single Big Data workflow tremendously accelerates the discovery process. This enables us to optimize all model parameters, gaining insight into the disease and predicting the impact of treatment with high accuracy.”

To hear more, join us at ASCO:

Abstract Title: Mutually exclusive expression of CD73 and PD-L1 in tumors from patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), gastroesophageal (GE) and urothelial bladder carcinoma (UBC).

Session Title: Developmental Therapeutics - Immunotherapy 6/5/2017 8:00A - 11:30A

Abstract Submission ID: 191373

Abstract Number for Publication: 3079

Poster: 174

Booth: 20111

About Definiens

Definiens is a member of the AstraZeneca group providing products and services to companies across the life sciences sector, including MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca.

Definiens’ proven technology has been used in thousands of projects, yielding results that have accelerated drug development and produced over 650 peer-reviewed publications.

We improve patient lives by unlocking the tissue phenome. In oncology, therapeutic strategies have shifted from a direct assault on cancer cells to recruiting the immune system for that purpose. Our mission is to accelerate breakthroughs for this approach by helping scientists leverage Tissue Phenomics to deepen understanding of disease biology and immune system mechanisms, to bring multi-omics data into a cancer-relevant context, and to facilitate the translation of new insights into novel therapies and treatment strategies. Our vision is to create unique patient profiles for an individualized standard of care, where patients experience fewer side effects and live longer.

Definiens' Tissue Phenomics approach was awarded the 2013 Frost and Sullivan Company of the Year Award for Global Tissue Diagnostics and Pathology Imaging. For more information, please visit: www.definiens.com.