NEW YORK – Tempus on Thursday said it is working with AstraZeneca on a trial of non-small cell lung cancer that aims to create a multiomics dataset for discovering biomarkers and developing precision medicines and diagnostics.
Chicago-based Tempus and AstraZeneca are currently enrolling two cohorts of patients in the GEMINI NSCLC trial: recently diagnosed stage IV NSCLC patients receiving standard of care checkpoint inhibitors and patients with early-stage disease eligible for surgery.
Tempus will use its sequencing assays, which include a solid tumor test, a cell-free DNA sequencing panel, and an investigational minimal residual disease assay, to better understand the molecular profile of NSCLC patients. Researchers will track patients in the trial for up to three years to gauge how their tumor biology changes as their disease progresses and they receive treatment.
The findings, according to Tempus, can lead to the discovery of new biomarkers, potentially including circulating tumor DNA for measuring MRD.
"The GEMINI study addresses research gaps in a high-need patient population that the Tempus platform is uniquely positioned to undertake," Tempus CSO Kate Sasser said in a statement. "By taking a multiomics approach, we believe that we can generate one of the most comprehensive analyses of early- and late-stage NSCLC patients, and one that will power significant advancements in biomarker discovery."
In the GEMINI study, researchers will have access to not just Tempus' molecular tests but also its multimodal data library and clinical trial matching program, called TIME. "In leveraging its TIME Trial Network, Tempus is broadening access to patients in communities across the country, while also helping to ensure that the study’s results are representative of this patient population in the US," the firm said.