Patients Received 1.2 Fewer Lines of Therapy When Physicians Made Treatment Decisions Aligned with Caris Molecular Intelligence
IRVING, Tex., Mar. 14, 2016 – Caris Life Sciences^®, a leading biotechnology company focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine, announced today the publication of results from its analysis of patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) utilizing the company’s patented and proprietary  offering, Caris Molecular Intelligence^® (CMI), to help physicians make more informed therapy decisions. The results, which appear in the March 2016 issue of Oncotarget, showed a nine-month increase in median overall survival when physicians treated patients in accordance with CMI results and avoided cancer drugs predicted to lack benefit.
“Precision medicine tools are providing physicians with a deeper understanding and clearer insight into each tumor’s unique molecular biology. The result of this retrospective study showed significant improvement in overall survival for those patients with recurrent and/or resistant disease who were treated in accordance with the molecular makeup of their tumor,” said William McGuire, M.D., Director of the Phase I Solid Tumor Program at VCU Massey Cancer Center and senior author of the publication. “Having this knowledge prior to treatment selection is vital to improving treatment strategies, especially for the patient population where limited options are available.”
The Study
In this study, Caris Life Sciences in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cincinnati Cancer Institute, VCU Massey Cancer Center, Prince of Wales Hospital (Sydney, Australia), Washington University School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and Western Pennsylvania Gynecological Oncology, sought to determine the value of CMI in 224 patients with recurrent EOC from the Caris Observational Registry (NCT02678754). Patients with at least stage IIIC/IV EOC at the time of molecular testing were retrospectively divided into two cohorts based on whether or not the drugs they received matched the CMI results. The Matched cohort did not receive any drugs predicted to lack benefit. The Unmatched cohort received at least one drug predicted to lack benefit. Generating molecular intelligence for biomarker/drug associations was based on CMI testing, which includes gene sequencing (Next-Generation [NGS] and Sanger), protein expression analysis (immunohistochemistry [IHC]), gene copy number and translocation analyses (chromogenic or fluorescence in situ hybridization [CISH or FISH]), as well as a proprietary bioinformatics rules engine processing biomarker/drug associations for more than 60 FDA-approved chemotherapies, immunotherapies and targeted therapies.
The Results
In this study, the median overall survival for patients in the Matched cohort was nine months longer than those in the Unmatched cohort. In addition to the overall survival improvement, the Matched cohort received 1.2 fewer lines of therapy than the Unmatched cohort highlighting the benefit of avoiding potentially harmful therapies.
Interestingly, the findings also highlight the important role protein expression plays when analyzing molecular information to individualize cancer therapy. The majority of molecular aberrations suggesting particular therapeutic strategies were driven by protein results, which are associated with mostly generic chemotherapies on NCCN Compendia^® for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
“These data illustrate the positive impact that CMI-informed therapy decisions can have on the survival outcomes of patients suffering from advanced EOC,” said Sandeep K. Reddy, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Caris Life Sciences. “We are inspired by these results and are committed to providing physicians with the most comprehensive and clinically actionable molecular information to improve understanding of oncologic biomarkers in individual patients.”
To view the publication in its entirety, click here.
About Caris Life Sciences^®
Founded by David D. Halbert in 2008, Caris Life Sciences^® is a leading biotechnology company focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine through quality and innovation. Caris Molecular Intelligence^®, the company’s patented offering to help physicians make more informed therapy decisions, with more than 85,000 patients profiled, provides oncologists with the most clinically actionable treatment options available to personalize cancer care today. Using a variety of advanced profiling technologies to assess relevant biological changes in each patient’s tumor, Caris Molecular Intelligence connects biomarker data generated from a tumor with biomarker-drug associations supported by evidence in the relevant clinical literature through a proprietary bioinformatics rules engine. Since 2009, Caris Life Sciences has tracked clinical and outcome data for certain patients undergoing tumor profiling, and has observed that patients treated with drugs consistent with their tumor profile show a significant increase in overall survival. The company is also developing its ADAPT Biotargeting System^™, a revolutionary and unbiased profiling platform with applications across therapy development, drug delivery, advanced diagnostics and disease monitoring. Currently being developed for cancer and other complex diseases, the ADAPT Biotargeting System is able to simultaneously measure millions of molecular interactions within complex biological systems in their natural state(s). Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.CarisLifeSciences.com.
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