NEW YORK — OncoDNA and the Institut Jules Bordet said on Thursday that they have partnered on an international study investigating central nervous system metastases.
The study, called BrainStorm, aims to enroll 600 patients newly diagnosed with solid tumors at collaborating clinical sites in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg who will provide cerebrospinal fluid samples for analysis. OncoDNA will use next-generation sequencing panels, as well as targeted gene panels for patient-specific mutations, to detect circulating tumor DNA in the samples.
Genomic results from the work will be made available on OncoDNA's OncoKDM data interpretation platform to help Institut Jules Bordet explore CNS metastases and their heterogeneity with the primary solid tumor. The Belgium-based research center expects the findings will help in the identification of new biomarkers to aid in CNS metastases management and patient treatment.
"Collaboration with OncoDNA will be crucial for the translational part of this study, allowing to explore less invasive molecular biomarkers and new targets for therapy," Nuria Kotecki, an Institut Jules Bordet researcher leading the BrainStorm program, said in a statement. "Ultimately, these findings will be key to … the development of innovative multidisciplinary clinical and translational research projects, aiming to improve patients' outcomes in this huge unmet medical need situation."
Earlier this year, Belgium-based OncoDNA formed a collaboration with the Institut Curie to evaluate liquid biopsy-based treatment monitoring for head and neck cancer patients.