Fighting the good fight in war against cancer

The World Health Organisation says cancer killed nearly 10 million people in one year. These companies are determined to do something about it.

ASX-listed firms are striking major blows in the fight against cancer.

According to the World Health Organisation, cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, or nearly one in six deaths.

Here are three small and mid-cap ASX cancer stocks working for better treatments and early detection of cancer.

The one with the bowel cancer blood test

Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY) is working to replace invasive bowel cancer screening with a simple blood test.

Rhythm’s recently announced promising results from a clinical trial of its blood test product ColoSTAT exhibited very high accuracy for the detection of colorectal cancer.

Seriously, will anyone miss these?

The trial showed statistically significant performance, recording 81% sensitivity, and a specificity of 91%.

ColoSTAT was also shown to be 35% more accurate than the market standard Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) for detecting cancer and advanced adenomas.

Yep, that means no more stool tests at home.

Rhythm Biosciences has a market cap of ~$300 million. Its share price is up ~25.% in the past year to $1.40.

The one with CAR-T cell therapy

Clinical stage oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX) develops novel, personalised therapies for a range of cancers.

Prescient’s universal CAR-T and targeted therapies seek to improve patient outcomes, while also offering new tools for clinicians in combating cancer.

PTX is working to rapidly expand the application of universal CAR-T therapies, capable of addressing all cancer types, including solid tumours.

The company recently expanded patient recruitment for a trial into lead drug candidate, PTX-100, in the treatment of patients with T-cell lymphomas.

The decision to expand the trial followed excellent safety data and promising preliminary evidence of clinical efficiency.

The company has a market cap of ~$84.5 million. Its share price has risen 30% in the past year to 13 cents.

The one that identifies and eradicates tumours

Imugene (ASX:IMU) is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing new treatments that seek to activate the immune system of cancer patients to identify and eradicate tumours.

The company has novel technology platforms delivering immunotherapy including oncolytic virotherapies, onCARlytics in cellular therapy and B-Cell activating immunotherapies.

Imugene has several clinical trials underway, including a collaboration with global giants Pfizer and Merck for the Phase 2 trial of HER-Vaxx.

HER-Vaxx is a B-cell immunotherapy to treat tumours over-expressing the HER-2/neu receptor, such as gastric, breast, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers.

Imugene is headed by Australia biotech veteran Paul Hopper and has a market cap of $1.34 billion. Its share price is up ~18% in the past year to 22 cents.

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