On April 8, 2024 Serum Detect, Inc., a cancer diagnostics company advancing new technologies for early detection of cancer, reported the presentation of new data at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA (Press release, Serum Detect, APR 8, 2024, View Source [SID1234641892]). The new data suggests that, when combined with circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and cancer-related protein biomarkers, Serum Detect’s TCR-based approach may significantly improve sensitivity for the detection of early-stage cancer.
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Poster Highlights:
New study demonstrates the potential of Serum Detect’s TCR repertoire liquid biopsy to complement ctDNA approaches.
Presented a novel approach for discovery of lung cancer-associated circulating TCR repertoire functional units (RFUs), which are computationally derived sets of TCRs with similar sequences that may recognize shared tumor antigens.
A machine learning model for lung cancer status prediction using TCR RFUs detected nearly 50% of stage I lung cancers at a specificity of 80%.
The TCR RFU model score could distinguish lung cancer from non-cancerous lung conditions such as benign nodules and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The TCR RFU model achieved a substantial gain in sensitivity for stage I cancer when the scores were added to plasma ctDNA mutation and lung cancer-related protein biomarker analysis, with an approximately 20%-point increase seen at the ~90% target specificity commonly used for cancer screening tests.
"The primary way to achieve cancer cures is through early detection," said Roman Yelensky, PhD, Serum Detect’s founder and CEO. "While liquid biopsy is promising, it is still failing to detect many early-stage cancers and pre-cancerous growths. Our first data on immune-based cancer early detection point to a potentially exciting complementary approach. We are grateful for the opportunity to share these findings with the research community and look forward to discussing our results with attendees at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) and collaborating to develop this technology into clinically impactful liquid biopsy tests."
The findings are based on a large circulating TCR repertoire dataset of 922 lung cancer cases and control subjects in total. This proprietary TCR dataset was generated using a custom NGS assay on genomic DNA extracted from blood buffy coats, which is a specimen often collected but not typically used for early detection biomarker discovery. 197 lung cancer associated circulating TCR repertoire functional units were identified at a false discovery rate (FDR) ≤10%. These include 110 RFUs that were enriched in cancer patients and 87 RFUs that were enriched in non-cancer controls. Individual RFU statistical effect sizes were relatively small, highlighting the importance of signal aggregation across multiple TCRs and TCR repertoire functional units with Serum’s novel approach.
Poster presentation details:
Poster Title: Circulating T cell receptor repertoire analysis improves cancer early detection
Presentation Number: 2295
Presenters: Yilong Li, PhD; Michelle Nahas, PhD; Roman Yelensky, PhD
Session Title: Liquid Biopsy and Precision Oncology
Session Date and Time: Monday, Apr 8, 2024, 9:00am – 12:30pm PT
Location: Poster Section 36; Poster Board Number 6
Visit the poster session and follow Serum Detect on LinkedIn for more updates from #AACR24.