BIOTECHNOLOGY

Cancer Aid Patent: Oncotech, a clinical laboratory and drug-development firm in Irvine, said it has received a patent for a laboratory-testing method that identifies cancer patients who can benefit from new drugs designed to strengthen their immune systems.

The testing method could make it easier to test the effectiveness of new immunotherapy drugs such as interleukin-2, interferons and monoclonal antibodies, said Dr. Larry Weisenthal, a physician and vice president for scientific affairs for Oncotech. Such drugs, he said, are effective in only about 15% of cases.

“For the first time, we will be able to identify which patients will be helped” before the drugs are used, he said.

The method uses enzymes to separate cancerous cells from immune cells outside the body. Then the immunotherapy drugs can be added to the immune cells to see whether they increase those cells’ ability to fight the cancerous cells.

Oncotech plans to begin clinical trials of its method later this year to determine its accuracy.

“In our opinion, immunotherapy over the next 10 years will emerge--along with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy--as an important method of cancer treatment,” Weisenthal said. “And we feel that our methodology will be a key component in the effective use of immunotherapy.”