NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Epizyme today announced a collaboration with Eisai and Roche to develop an in vitro, PCR-based companion diagnostic test to help treat genetically defined lymphomas.
The goal of the project, Epizyme said, is to identify lymphoma patients with non-wild type EZH2, including the Y641 mutation. In a study published in September in Nature Chemical Biology, Epizyme researchers demonstrated that lymphomas with genetic alterations of EZH2 require H3K27 methylation activity to proliferate, suggesting that EZH2 is a driving oncogene in these cancers and thus a potential therapeutic target.
Eisai and Epizyme are working together to develop an EZH2 inhibitor as a personalized therapeutic for patients, while Roche will develop a PCR-based assay to detect mutations in the gene to potentially select patients for therapy with the inhibitor.
Additional details of the partnership were not disclosed.