Scientific background

Bone metastases are a high unmet medical need

Global cancer burden and cancer deaths are rapidly increasing, and metastases are the primary cause of cancer death. Bone is a major site of metastasis in several cancers, with breast and prostate cancer being most affected. About 70-90% of advances breast and prostate cancer patients develop bone metastases, and only about 5% of cancer patients with bone metastases are alive 5 years after the diagnosis. Bone metastases cause increased risk of fractures, spinal cord compression and severe bone pain, and decrease the quality of life. With no effective therapies available, bone metastases are currently a high unmet medical need, and such therapies would have a huge impact on the healthcare sector and patients’ lives.

Importance of metastatic microenvironment

It is essential to understand that the tumour that was once growing in the primary organ changes considerably during the metastatic process and becomes resistant to many standard-of-care therapies due to the influence of the metastatic microenvironment. This is an especially large problem in the inherently complex and biologically unique bone microenvironment. Therefore, it is important to address bone microenvironment when developing treatment options for cancer patients with bone metastases.

Our approach to drug development

For developing novel therapies to bone metastases, OncoBone Therapeutics utilizes a novel innovative osteoimmuno-oncology (OIO) concept established by its founders. OIO refers to interactions of cancer, bone and immune cells, three compartments important in regulating growth of bone metastasis that should all be targeted when developing effective and safe therapies for bone metastasis.

Increased clinical predictivity utilizing our biologically relevant preclinical Bone Metastasis Technology Platform

The failure rate of oncology drugs in clinical trials is >95%, which is much higher than in any other indication area. One important reason for this is the general reliance on preclinical efficacy data obtained from primary tumour models without confirming the efficacy in clinically relevant metastatic tumour microenvironment. 

Bone is a unique microenvironment comprising of a specific immune landscape that together with bone cells can support the growth of bone metastases locally without having to rely on other tissues for support. 

Founders of OncoBone Therapeutics have developed a preclinical Bone Metastasis Technology Platform that can be used for confirming efficacy of therapeutic assets in tumors growing in bone metastatic microenvironment. This platform allows us to develop the first truly effective therapies to cancer patients with bone metastases.