As we highlighted last week, September is Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month. After exploring the landscape of challenges and opportunities in gynecological cancer treatment, this week we're zeroing in on Ovarian Cancer. Specifically, we'll introduce you to the startups making waves in diagnostics and care for this often-fatal condition.
A Quick Recap: What is Ovarian Cancer?
Ovarian cancer originates in the ovaries, the female reproductive glands responsible for producing eggs and hormones like estrogen and progesterone. This type of cancer often remains undetected until it has spread, making it difficult to treat successfully. Early-stage ovarian cancer, confined to the ovary, has a better prognosis.
Standard of Care & Diagnostics Today: The Challenge
Traditionally, ovarian cancer is diagnosed through a combination of physical examinations, imaging tests like ultrasounds or CT scans, and biopsies. Treatment often involves surgical removal of the affected ovary or ovaries, followed by chemotherapy and sometimes radiation therapy. However, these approaches have limitations:
- Late Diagnosis: The lack of effective early screening tests means that ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage.
- Treatment Side Effects: Current treatments like chemotherapy have significant side effects and may not be effective for all subtypes of ovarian cancer.
- Personalization: Treatments are often not tailored to individual patients, leading to less effective care and lower survival rates.
The need for early detection and personalized treatment methods makes innovation in this space incredibly valuable.
Innovators and Disruptors: Meet the Startups
🔬 Diagnostics
In the diagnostics field, AOA Dx recently closed a $7M funding round for their work in early cancer detection using tumor marker gangliosides. Tailor Bio secured a £650,000 grant in July 2022 to develop a diagnostic tool for identifying patients who won't respond to specific chemotherapy. GenoME Diagnostics raised £1.4M in an effort to push for earlier and more accurate diagnosis with its OvaME blood test.
InterVenn Biosciences is known for its glycoproteomic, liquid-biopsy test. The company raised $34M in 2020 and is now focusing on commercialization. Nevia Bio, an early stage startup, announced a $3M seed round recently to advance its machine learning-based diagnostic methods. Ovartec is promoting its patented, non-invasive OVARTEC Lavage Concept for early detection and prevention, while Biovaxys is focused on prevention working on a vaccine platform based on the concept of haptenization.
💊 Treatment
Dio Tree is developing a first-in-class small molecule that inhibits the enzyme DIO3. They've recently raised $400K in late 2022 to accelerate their research. Avenge Bio made progress with its clinical development of AVB-001, which is now in Phase II trials for Metastatic Ovarian Cancer as of March 2023. OncXerna has a promising bispecific antibody, navicixizumab, with recent Phase 2 Trial results announced in January 2023.
All the companies featured today offer opportunities to contribute to substantial advancements in Ovarian Cancer diagnostics and treatment. And while each is at a different stage of funding and clinical trials, they all have immense potential to bring much-needed innovation to this space.
