By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report
Sequenom, the San Diego-based genetic laboratory, has entered into a research collaboration with the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California at San Diego to determine the utility of the company’s nascent liquid biopsy test.
Sequenom is currently developing a test that is for research use only, focused on the molecular profiling of late stage non-hematologic malignancies through the analysis of cell-free tumor DNA. It is expected to bring it to market sometime in 2016, but it has yet to gauge its effectiveness in detecting a wide range of cancers.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Moores Cancer Center will help use the test for ongoing patient monitoring and the determination of specific therapy selections for cancers."The ability to match patients to a growing list of treatments and to monitor their response by a simple blood draw promises to make a significant difference in the way we treat cancer patients at UC San Diego," said Razelle Kurzrock, M.D., chief of UCSD’s division of hematology and oncology and senior deputy director of clinical science, in a statement. "The collaboration with Sequenom will allow us to analyze more cancer-related genes in the blood than previously possible to better understand tumor heterogeneity and the emergence of resistance mutations."
Sequenom said that the collaboration is the first in what would be a series with cancer centers worldwide to utilize the test for their clinical research programs.