CTC intelligence company CelLBxHealth has announced a new research collaboration with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (The Royal Marsden), one of the world's leading cancer centres.
In a statement, CelLBxHealth and The Royal Marsden said that they will jointly undertake a translational clinical study in 200 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
This prospective study will be integrated into existing research on circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) testing from blood samples.
For the 10-15% of patients with "uninformative" ctDNA results (no actionable genomic mutations identified), circulating tumour cell DNA (CTC-DNA) will be analysed to find actionable mutations for targeted treatment decisions.
This method is backed by previous studies showing that CTC DNA can reveal additional actionable mutations.
The secondary objectives include evaluating CTC-DNA consistency with tumour tissue profiling and determining if the combined analysis improves the detection of clinically relevant genomic mutations.
The project will be jointly led by Dr Lavanya Sivapalan, Head of R&D at CelLBxHealth and Professor Michael Hubank, Scientific Director of the Clinical Genomics Service at The Royal Marsden.
Results of the study are anticipated by year's end and all anonymised data generated during the study will be shared between both parties to support joint analysis and translational insights.
Peter Collins, CEO of CelLBxHealth, said: "This collaboration with The Royal Marsden represents a great opportunity to deliver precision oncology for a significant number of NSCLC patients for whom standard of care tissue biopsy and ctDNA analysis is unable to identify genetic alterations that confer eligibility for a wide range of effective targeted therapies."
By integrating a reflex to CTC-DNA analysis, we aim to identify those clinically actionable alterations and expand treatment options for this patient group.
"We are delighted to partner with a globally recognised institution to evaluate the potential of this combined approach in a real-world clinical setting."