On June 4, 2024 Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL) reported that data presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) oral podium talks in Chicago, IL demonstrated that the Personalis NeXT Personal test had exceptional detection rates and performance for early-stage breast cancer and immunotherapy monitoring (Press release, Personalis, JUN 4, 2024, View Source [SID1234644105]). The NeXT Personal test is the first of a new class of ultra-sensitive liquid biopsy tests designed to detect the earliest traces of cancer recurrence and monitor a patient’s response to therapy. The test can detect circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) down to an ultra-sensitive range (<100 parts per million of ctDNA) and the data presented as ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) highlights the clinical importance of this approach.
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Earlier and more sensitive detection of recurrence in early-stage breast cancer
Breast cancer is currently the most common cancer in the U.S., with an estimated 300,000 new cases and approximately 40,000 deaths forecasted for 2024 according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). The current standard of care for relapse detection of breast cancer is primarily imaging such as mammography, which can have limited sensitivity. These studies are focused on addressing this challenge through advanced ctDNA analysis with NeXT Personal.
Breast cancer results were presented in an oral presentation by Dr. Isaac Garcia-Murillas and come from a team at the Institute of Cancer Research, London and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in the UK led by Professor Nicholas Turner, renowned for his work on the use of ctDNA to guide breast cancer treatment. In this study, they found:
NeXT Personal’s Ultra-sensitive range enabled earlier detection of recurrence, with a median ~15-month lead time over imaging detection
100% of patients that recurred were detected with NeXT Personal and 100% of patients that were ctDNA negative on longitudinal testing were cancer-free
NeXT Personal enabled detection of very low traces of cancer, with ~39% of all detections falling in the ultra-sensitive range below 100 PPM (below 0.01% of ctDNA)
NeXT Personal enabled substantially better sensitivity and lead times compared to other MRD assays on the same patient cohort
Dr. Garcia-Murillas noted, "NeXT Personal demonstrated the best MRD performance we have seen in this study cohort. With the ultra-sensitive performance of NeXT Personal, we see strong opportunities to impact breast cancer care and management, especially for the escalation and de-escalation of treatment."
Additional breast cancer results presented at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) include a poster presentation by Dr. Adrienne Waks at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute using NeXT Personal to assess neoadjuvant therapy response in the DAPHNe HER2+ breast cancer trial. In this study, NeXT Personal demonstrated high baseline sensitivity (92%) for ctDNA for HER2+ breast cancer patients enabled by the ultra-sensitivity of the test with 27% of detections in the ultra-sensitive range. NeXT Personal was also able to demonstrate neoadjuvant THP treatment effectiveness by showing the treatment had cleared the tumor MRD.
Strong performance in immunotherapy monitoring
Several hundred thousand cancer patients are put on immunotherapy treatment annually. While over 40% of patients with cancer are eligible for immunotherapy, only ~12% of patients respond, underscoring the need for a blood test that monitors treatment response for patients, doctors, and payers.
An oral presentation showed the importance of NeXT Personal’s use for immunotherapy monitoring. Dr. Rodrigo Toledo at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) presented data in an oral presentation that demonstrated that the baseline levels and the changes in levels of ctDNA detected by NeXT Personal are highly predictive of therapy response and clinical outcomes for late-stage cancer patients receiving immunotherapy. This includes the finding that patients who had a significant decrease in ctDNA levels from baseline to the third cycle of immunotherapy had overall survival that was more than two times longer than those who did not. They also demonstrated that NeXT Personal had an average lead time for detecting progression of 81 days over imaging.
The VHIO data is a broad study that included patients across 18 different solid tumor types. "The changes in ctDNA levels elucidated by the NeXT Personal test can dramatically enhance our ability to understand if late-stage cancer patients are responding to their therapy. This is critical to optimally managing immunotherapy and other treatments for these very sick patients," said Dr. Toledo.
Additional results presented at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) include a poster presentation by Professor Andy Nixon at the Duke Cancer Institute in late-stage esophagogastric cancer that received immunotherapy in combination with chemotherapy as part of the KeyLargo trial. In this study, Dr. Nixon found that ctDNA levels were demonstrated to be highly prognostic for therapy response. In late-stage cancer patients, ctDNA levels can be very low with ~20% of samples falling in the ultra-sensitive range, underscoring the importance of an ultra-sensitive test like NeXT Personal.
"With the addition of the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) data, we now have presented data across lung cancer, breast cancer, and patients on immunotherapy that consistently highlight the importance of an ultra-sensitive MRD platform like NeXT Personal to detect recurrence earlier, monitor therapy response, and more accurately predict clinical outcomes for cancer patients," said Dr. Richard Chen, Chief Medical Officer and EVP of R&D at Personalis. "We also expect the strong performance in these studies will help drive clinical adoption and reimbursement of NeXT Personal."
Personalis will host a webinar call on June 19th, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time to present ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) highlights from the conference.
Webcast and Conference Call Information
To receive the dial-in instructions, please email [email protected].