Foundation Medicine, the Cambridge, Mass.-based molecular laboratory, has launched a new test panel that focuses specifically on hematologic cancers. The panel, known as FoundationOne Heme, was developed in conjunction with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Sloan-Kettering provided its sizable database on hematologic cancers, allowing Foundation Medicine to fine-tune its proprietary gene marker detection technology and algorithms. There are about 150,000 new cases of blood-based cancers—leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma—diagnosed in the United States every year, up significantly over the last decade. They represent about 10 percent of all cancer diagnoses each year and cause about 55,000 deaths, also about 10 percent of the nationwide total. Although the five-year survival rates from the hematologic form of the disease have dramatically improved over the past 50 years, they remain below 50 percent for myeloma and less than 60 percent for leukemia. Higher survival rates are tied to earlier detection and determination of the most effective drug regimens—something the Foundation Medicine tests are expected to improve. “This new test is designed to fit within routine clinical practice and provide a physician with all of the relevant genomic information needed to make an informed treatment decision, which may include a targeted therapy […]
Foundation Medicine, the Cambridge, Mass.-based molecular laboratory, has launched a new test panel that focuses specifically on hematologic cancers.
The panel, known as FoundationOne Heme, was developed in conjunction with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Sloan-Kettering provided its sizable database on hematologic cancers, allowing Foundation Medicine to fine-tune its proprietary gene marker detection technology and algorithms.
There are about 150,000 new cases of blood-based cancers—leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma—diagnosed in the United States every year, up significantly over the last decade. They represent about 10 percent of all cancer diagnoses each year and cause about 55,000 deaths, also about 10 percent of the nationwide total.
Although the five-year survival rates from the hematologic form of the disease have dramatically improved over the past 50 years, they remain below 50 percent for myeloma and less than 60 percent for leukemia. Higher survival rates are tied to earlier detection and determination of the most effective drug regimens—something the Foundation Medicine tests are expected to improve.
“This new test is designed to fit within routine clinical practice and provide a physician with all of the relevant genomic information needed to make an informed treatment decision, which may include a targeted therapy or clinical trial,” said Michael Pellini, M.D., Foundation Medicine’s chief executive officer. Company officials said the test can also be used on pediatric forms of the disease.
In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Foundation Medicine indicated its research on the new test indicated it is more accurate in analyzing the genetic state of hematologic cancers than established tests such as BRAF, JAK-STAT, and IDH1/2.
FoundationOne Heme is the second product introduced by Foundation Medicine. It introduced a molecular assay for solid cancer tumors last year. Although the company has yet to show a bottom-line profit, its revenues for the first nine months of 2013 are nearly quadruple the same period from a year ago. However, the company’s stock is about 35 percent lower than when it began trading in September.
Takeaway: Foundation Medicine is continuing with its oncology-based molecular assay development.
