Findings from a study conducted with researchers at the Moores Cancer Center of the University of California, San Diego, indicate that the lung cancer Target Selector assay by Biocept Inc, San Diego, has high concordance with tumor status in patients with metastatic lung cancer.
Biocept Inc is a commercial-stage molecular diagnostics company that utilizes a proprietary technology platform and a standard blood sample to perform “liquid biopsies,” providing physicians with important prognostic and predictive information to enhance the treatment of individual patients with cancer. Biocept’s technology platform captures and analyzes circulating tumor DNA, both in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and in plasma (ctDNA). Biocept currently offers biomarker assays for lung, breast, colorectal, and gastric cancers, as well as melanoma. The company plans to introduce CLIA-validated assays for prostate and other solid tumors in the near term.
Lyudmila A. Bazhenova, MD, University of California, San Diego.
“Results of our study indicate that the noninvasive Target Selector assay could have a role in managing patients with metastatic lung cancer,” explains oncologist Lyudmila A. Bazhenova, MD, associate clinical professor of medicine at UC San Diego. “For example, a patient was correctly identified as having an emerging T790M resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) with the Target Selector assay prior to confirmation by tissue biopsy. This patient was then placed on a next-generation TKI, and has subsequently demonstrated radiographic response to this change in treatment.”
“These study data further build on clinical evidence that the Target Selector affords noninvasive profiling of a tumor’s genomic landscape by monitoring treatment response and early detection of the emergence of resistance,” says Veena Singh, MD, senior vice president and senior medical director at Biocept. “The high concordance and level of specificity and sensitivity of the Target Selector assay shown in this study suggest that it has utility in the restratification of patients due to tumoral heterogeneity in order to qualify them for TKI therapy.
“Liquid biopsies are used when the initial diagnostic tissue biopsy sample is depleted, which can occur as much as 20% of the time,” says Singh. “These patients are often too sick for additional invasive tissue sampling, or refuse another surgical procedure. In addition, our liquid biopsy tests provide cost savings when compared with surgical tissue biopsies, thus delivering an added economic benefit to the healthcare system in general.”
