On May 20, 2024 Adela, Inc., an innovator in blood testing for molecular residual disease (MRD) monitoring and early cancer detection through a proprietary genome-wide methylome enrichment technology, reported that it will present results demonstrating the ability of its tissue-agnostic MRD assay to predict recurrence in head & neck cancer, during an Oral Presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting on June 3, 2024 (Press release, Adela, MAY 30, 2024, View Source;neck-cancer-at-the-american-society-of-clinical-oncology-2024-meeting-302158653.html [SID1234643884]).

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"MRD tests have the potential to enable clinicians to individualize patient treatment based on a patient’s likelihood of a future recurrence. In addition, these tests can assist with identifying patients who may benefit from being more closely monitored with imaging to detect and treat a recurrence as early as possible," said Geoffrey Liu, MSc, MD, Senior Scientist, University Health Network – Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. "We are highly encouraged by these results demonstrating the ability of this genome-wide methylome enrichment platform to identify recurrences in head & neck cancer in advance of clinical presentation or routine imaging."

The ability of Adela’s assay to quantify cfDNA cancer signal and predict recurrence was evaluated in individuals diagnosed with stage I-IVB human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative and HPV-positive head and neck cancer treated at University Health Network – Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. This training analysis included 432 plasma samples collected from 130 patients (a subset of the full cohort of >1,100 plasma samples from >300 individuals). Blood draws occurred before and after curative intent treatment, and in a subset of patients, at 12 and 24 months post-curative intent treatment. Adela’s MRD assay demonstrated the ability to identify patients more likely to recur than not, based on the landmark blood draw (mean 3 months following curative intent treatment), and also at the surveillance timepoints.

Significant differences in recurrence-free survival (RFS) were observed, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 6.31 (P<0.001) at the landmark timepoint, and an HR of 12.95 (P<0.001) for surveillance timepoints, when patients were stratified by MRD positivity. MRD status correlated with RFS in both HPV-positive and HPV-negative disease. Lead time between MRD positivity and recurrence was up to 19.3 months, with a mean lead time of 5.1 months.

"Up to 80% of recurrences in patients with head & neck cancer are not detected until symptoms or physical findings are reported by the patient1. Routine surveillance for recurrences with MRD testing can enable earlier detection and treatment of recurrences with immunotherapy," said Dr. Anne-Renee Hartman, Chief Medical Officer of Adela. "We are excited about the potential of our tissue-agnostic approach to MRD detection for both HPV-positive and HPV-negative head & neck cancer to address this strong unmet need."

Validation results from a held-out test set from the cohort will be presented at a future meeting. A Research Use Only (RUO) version of Adela’s MRD test is currently available to biopharmaceutical companies and other investigators for use in biomarker discovery and drug development. Adela plans to commercialize the test for clinical use in 2025.

Presentation Details

Abstract # 3009: Performance characteristics of a tissue-agnostic genome-wide methylome enrichment MRD assay for head and neck malignancies.
Geoffrey Liu2
Mon June 3, 2024 4:42 PM CDT
Hall D2