NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Cynvenio Biosystems announced today that it has launched a pilot surveillance study with South Korea's ATGen Global to evaluate a new method for the early detection of cancer recurrence in triple-negative breast cancer patients. Cynvenio's ClearID test will be combined with ATGen's NK Vue blood test to detect cancer recurrence in women who have previously been treated for triple-negative breast cancer and show no radiographic signs of metastases.
ClearID is based on Cynvenio's LiquidBiopsy technology, which enriches and identifies rare tumor cells from standard blood draws. NK Vue is an ELISA-based blood test that measures the activity of natural killer cells, a component of the innate immune system known to attack tumor cells. In September, the companies formed a partnership to commercialize NK Vue in the US.
"It is highly likely that some women will harbor subclinical metastatic disease that cannot yet be radiographically detected and for which no specific biomarker has been identified, but in whom circulating tumor cells can be found," Paul Song, chief medical officer of both companies, said in a statement. "Using a combination of Cynvenio’s ClearID technology and ATGen’s NK Vue test, we believe we may help find these cancerous cells well before they embed themselves in organs or bone, and then analyze them to identify specific targeted therapies in hopes of improving outcomes."
Enrollment for the study has begun at Cynvenio's lab in Westlake Village, California, and will be expanded to include sites in Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh in the first half of 2016. The companies expect to enroll approximately 250 women.