NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Natera and Belgian cancer reference center Institut Jules Bordet plan to collaborate on a breast cancer research project using Natera's circulating tumor DNA assay, Signatera.
Natera will analyze around 300 plasma samples prospectively collected from 80 patients diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer who were all treated with chemotherapy followed by surgery.
The researchers will use Signatera to evaluate molecular response and minimal residual disease, compare the assay with standard recurrence monitoring and serial imaging, and correlate Signatera with clinical outcomes.
"Detection and monitoring of circulating tumor DNA has great potential to improve patient care by assisting therapeutic decision-making both pre- and post-surgery," Michail Ignatiadis, the study's lead and an attending physician in the Medical Oncology Department of Institut Jules Bordet, said in a statement.
Last year, Natera also struck collaborations with Aarhus University in Denmark to use Signatera in bladder and colorectal cancer, and with Imperial College of London and University of Leicester to evaluate Signatera for detecting disease recurrence in breast cancer.