NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Royal Philips announced last week that it and collaborators have been awarded a €6.3 million ($7.5 million) grant to develop an approach for personalized cancer treatment that combines liquid biopsy with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
According to Philips, the funding — provided under the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework program — will be used to fund a four-year project called Liquid Biopsies and Imaging for Improved Cancer Care, which aims to increase the accuracy of both genetic and functional characterization of primary breast cancer and rectal cancer.
Philips said that it and its partners will test a variety of liquid biopsy technologies in combination with MRI to see if they can help clinicians tailor treatment regimens to specific patients.
The project will specifically evaluate technologies for analyzing circulating tumor DNA from Agena Bioscience, DiaDx, and Stilla Technologies; Angle's Parsortix system for circulating tumor cell (CTC) isolation; and instrumentation for single CTC detection and selection from ALS Automated Lab Solutions. Clinical testing will be carried out at the University Medical Center Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht in the Netherlands and the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in France.
"In collaboration with our partners, we will combine a range of liquid biopsy technologies, which give us more detailed molecular information, with advanced MRI techniques, which could enable us to better understand the impact of treatment at an early stage," Hans Hofstraat, innovation program manager at Philips, said in a statement. "This has the potential to improve patient outcomes and potentially represents a significant step forward in delivering personalized cancer treatment."