NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Insight Genetics is working with Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to identify genetic markers associated with treatment response for triple-negative breast cancer patients.
Triple-negative breast cancer patients – women who don't express genes for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 – have limited treatment options, and they are at greater risk of relapse than women with other types of breast cancer.
Insight Genetics will work with VICC Director Jennifer Pietenpol, whose team recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation an algorithm with which they identified six distinct subtypes of triple-negative breast cancers. VICC researchers and Insight Genetics will aim to discover novel genetic markers within these subtypes in order to gain a better understanding of the types of treatments these groups of patients will respond to best. The partners also plan to develop and commercialize diagnostics based on the biomarkers they discover.
Under the terms of the deal with VICC, Insight Genetics has exclusive worldwide rights to the patent application, entitled "Markers of the Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Uses Thereof," which will be used to advance molecular tests to gauge triple-negative breast cancer subtypes. The company also has commercial rights to the TNBCtype software algorithm, a web-based service that "interprets raw data obtained through independent genetic sequencing methods."
The collaboration extends Insight Genetics' portfolio of diagnostic offerings, which includes tests for lung and various other cancers.