NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Belgian personalized cancer firm OncoDNA said today it has been awarded a contract to conduct testing and analysis for the Breast International Group (BIG), a Brussels non-profit that funds breast cancer research.
Under the multi-year contract, OncoDNA will perform its OncoDEEP Clinical Plus test on primary and metastatic tumor and blood samples from BIG's AURORA breast cancer clinical research program, which launched on April 15.
AURORA is focused on studying advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients and tumors. More than 1,300 women and men treated in at least 60 hospitals from 15 European countries will initially participate in the AURORA program.
OncoDNA will sequence 3,900 samples and will target a panel of 411 cancer-related genes, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, and will perform a specific testing package using breast cancer-specific immunohistochemistry markers on the same group of samples.
Jean-Pol Detiffe, CEO of OncoDNA, said in a statement that the contract for the AURORA project marks the official worldwide launch of the OncoDEEP solutions line, which OncoDNA markets as a method for using genomic and clinical data to make cancer treatment decisions.
Financial and other terms of the contract were not disclosed.