On December 17, 2020 Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL), a leader in advanced genomics for cancer, reported the launch of its proprietary Neoantigen Presentation Score (NEOPS) (Press release, Personalis, DEC 17, 2020, View Source [SID1234573000]). NEOPS combines analysis from Personalis’ state-of-the-art tumor neoantigen prediction tool, SHERPA, with mechanisms of immune evasion to better predict response to cancer therapy.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
NEOPS combines the tumor genomic and immune-related analytics of the Personalis NeXT Platform to create a composite biomarker that can be more effective in predicting immunotherapy response than other, simpler biomarkers. NEOPS leverages Personalis’ recently-launched machine learning-based tool, Systematic HLA Epitope Ranking Pan Algorithm (SHERPA), which provides more accurate prediction of neoantigen presentation, a core mechanism in determining immunotherapy response.
Data presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) virtual meeting in June demonstrated that NEOPS significantly outperformed tumor mutational burden in predicting response to anti-PD-L1 therapy in a cohort of late-stage, unresectable melanoma patients, highlighting the potential of composite, neoantigen-based biomarkers to more effectively stratify responders and non-responders to immunotherapy. The prevalence of immune evasion events incorporated into NEOPS suggests that such composite neoantigen-based biomarkers are potentially applicable to a range of immunotherapies and cancer types.
"Identifying effective biomarkers for cancer immunotherapy has proven challenging due to the complex biological mechanisms underlying patient response. We believe that more sophisticated, multimodal biomarker models like NEOPS represent the next step in this pursuit. By combining accurate tumor neoantigen prediction with mechanisms of immune evasion, we can create a more predictive model of therapy response," said Richard Chen, MD, Personalis CSO. "NEOPS is the first of a new class of composite biomarkers for our pharma partners to utilize in their clinical trials. In the future, such biomarkers may be used to inform treatment decisions for patients."
NEOPS, SHERPA, and other recent enhancements to the company’s HLA typing and HLA LOH analytics represent the latest update to the comprehensive suite of advanced analytical engines of the Personalis NeXT Platform. Utilizing an augmented exome and transcriptome-based approach, NeXT enables the simultaneous analysis of both a tumor and its immune microenvironment from a single tumor specimen to explore critical immunotherapy-related resistance mechanisms and novel composite biomarkers of response.