MedPacto said Monday that decreasing the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-B) response of fibroblast by using inhibitors could be a potentially effective therapeutic strategy for patients with desmoid tumors.

At the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021, the company presented that desmoid tumor patients expressed significantly higher fibroblast TGF-B responsive signature (F-TBRS) score among the various types of sarcoma when compared to the Yonsei Cancer Center (YCC) cohorts and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data.

Desmoid tumors are rare, and patients lack systemic treatment. Previous studies have shown increased expression of TGF-B in the desmoid tumor. MedPacto analyzed tumor samples collected from desmoid tumor patients to evaluate the therapeutic applicability of inhibition of TGF-B response.

The company collected pre-treatment desmoid tumor samples from 31 patients in YCC and performed targeted next-generation sequencing and whole ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing with two sarcoma cohorts to compare the data with other cancer types.

MedPacto then calculated the mean expression values of fibroblast-TBRS (F-TBRS) from a previous study to evaluate the enrichment of TGF-B responsive signature (TBRS) in tumor and microenvironment.

Researchers normalized transcriptomic data throughout in one YCC desmoid and two sarcoma cohorts to reduce the batch effect. To evaluate the enrichment of TGF-B responsive signature (TBRS) in tumor and microenvironment, we calculated the mean expression values of fibroblast-TBRS (F-TBRS) from a previous study.

In the two sarcoma cohorts, the desmoid tumor group had the highest F-TBRS score among the various sarcoma types.

“The study results of released at AACR 2021 were quite encouraging as it suggested potential treatments for various carcinomas,” MedPacto official said. “We will continue to share significant research data of follow-up pipelines via global conferences.”

MedPacto plans to conduct multinational clinical trials of Vactosertib, a selective TGF-β receptor I kinase inhibitor, this year for treating the desmoid tumor.