SAHMRI playing key role in cancer treatment innovation

A novel nanoparticle, combined with innovative imaging techniques, could improve survival outcomes by almost 20% for people who have had gastric or oesophageal cancer surgery.

This treatment innovation has been led from development to testing to commercialisation by the Adelaide-based biotech company Ferronova, with SAHMRI providing imaging expertise as the South Australian node of the National Imaging Facility.

Dr Andrew Dwyer, NIF SAHMRI Node Director and Director of the Clinical Research and Imaging Centre (CRIC), said the development of the nanoparticle dubbed FerroTrace has been an opportunity to showcase the breadth of NIF’s unique capabilities.

“SAHMRI has helped support the development of FerroTrace through all the translation phases of the project – from in-vitro work in large animals, through a Stage 1 clinical trial through to now a Stage 2 clinical trial,” Dr Dwyer said.

The prognosis after gastric and oesophageal cancer surgery is poor with the five-year survival rates at about 75% and 49% respectively. These survival rates fall to 35% and 28% if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes as lymph nodes are not confined to specific places and very small metastases cannot be detected with current imaging technology. 

The project has been driven by an engaged multidisciplinary team, with the support of radiologists, surgeons and pathologists working to improve outcomes for patients.

Dr O'Connell said the team is demonstrating the technology can improve current treatments by defining the central cancerous node and allowing other nodes to remain untouched.

“We have showed that we can find and map sentinel nodes, the next phase is to show that it can help surgeons in theatre, and the final stage is to show that it improves patient outcomes in post-surgical morbidity or their oncological outcome,” Dr O'Connell said.

Ferronova Chief Executive Officer Stewart Bartlett said NIF SAHMRI has been instrumental in supporting Ferronova to develop, test and commercialise FerroTrace.

"Ferronova's vision is to have our SPION platform technology used on every solid tumour cancer patient that needs improved surgical staging and to enable new therapeutic options in solid tumour cancer patients,” he said

“Our nanoparticle products have been tested in clinical trials in oral cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer with a gastric and oesophageal cancer trial in progress. This translation to the clinic would not be possible without the imaging capabilities and expertise at SAHMRI's Preclinical, Imaging and Research Laboratories (PIRL) facility and the CRIC in Adelaide."

NIF’s facilities at SAHMRI and The University of Queensland underpinned Ferronova’s preclinical imaging in small animals between 2018 and 2019. SAHMRI’s PIRL facility then supported Ferronova’s scale-up to preclinical, large-animal imaging until 2024 to develop surgical techniques, imaging sequences and biodistribution. From 2020, Ferronova’s first in-human study in head and neck cancer was supported by SAHMRI’s CRIC facility.

The work has also been supported by electron microscopy colleagues at the National Collabroative Research Infrastructure Strategy’s Microscopy Australia through the University of Sydney, UNSW and the University of South Australia.

The Stage 2 MAGMAP clinical trial is now underway for patients with gastric and oesophageal cancers. It is a multi-centre, partially blinded, side-by-side comparator study to assess the feasibility, safety and tolerability and potential added diagnostic and clinical value of FerroTrace for mapping high-risk lymph nodes in subjects.

NIF’s SAHMRI facility is supporting imaging for the trial, with expansions to NIF sites at the Austin Hospital/Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Eligible patients will undergo a FerroTrace injection, followed by an MRI to visualise and assess sentinel lymph nodes.

About Ferronova

Ferronova is an Australian biotechnology company headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia. Shareholders include Renew Pharmaceuticals Limited, Uniseed, the University of South Australia, Artesian Venture Partners and the South Australian Venture Capital Fund (SAVCF), Powerhouse Ventures, the University of Wellington in New Zealand, the University of Sydney, PAN Ventures, Perennial Future of Healthcare Fund, and ex-Macquarie Bank executive Allan Moss. Grant assistance has been provided by the SA Government since 2016, the Federal Government’s BioMedTech Horizons Program, operated by MTP Connect, and an Federal Government CRC-P grant.