NEW YORK – OncoDNA and Institut Curie in France on Thursday said they have partnered to evaluate liquid biopsy-based treatment monitoring for head and neck cancer patients.
The partnership will integrate OncoDNA's OncoFollow, a blood-based next-generation sequencing test, into the Institut Curie's ongoing prospective biobanking SCANDARE study. The SCANDARE investigators will longitudinally administer OncoFollow tests to patients at different stages of their treatment, including when they have surgery, and receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy, if applicable. They will use the test to monitor patients for disease progression and guide treatment selection should they develop new mutations.
"Liquid biopsies could be valuable alternatives to solid biopsies, which are sometimes delicate in this particular disease," Christophe Le Tourneau, senior medical oncologist at Institut Curie and one of the principal investigators in SCANDARE, said in a statement.
The OncoFollow tests will assess patients' circulating tumor DNA for mutations in 40 established genes associated with oncogenesis or treatment response, as well as 14 additional variants customized according to each patient's tumor. OncoDNA and Institut Curie will analyze nearly 300 plasma samples within SCANDARE.