NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Transgenomic said today that it is collaborating with New York University Langone Medical Center to use its Ice-Cold-PCR technology to study the molecular basis of non-small cell lung cancer and therapeutic response to existing and novel NSCLC therapies.
Under the partnership, researchers from Transgenomic and NYU-Langone will isolate rare circulating tumor cells from the blood of approximately 200 patients using Transgenomic's ScreenCell CTC-capture devices before and following surgery to determine if the CTC numbers change in response to treatment or are associated with disease recurrence or progression.
The group will then analyze DNA from these cells using Transgenomic's "improved and complete enrichment co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature," or Ice-Cold-PCR, technology, for the presence of mutations that have been shown to affect response to targeted drugs. The group will similarly analyze tumor-derived cell-free DNA from blood samples.
The researchers will then compare the molecular profile of cfDNA and DNA isolated from CTCs to that of the primary lung tumor to better understand the characteristics of cells that escape the tumor and are thought to be responsible for metastasis, Transgenomic said.
Harvey Pass, professor of thoracic oncology and vice-chair of research in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and chief of the General Thoracic Surgery division at NYU-Langone, will help oversee the study. Marcia Lewis, vice president of biomarker development, and Katharine Richardson, vice president of R&D at Transgenomic, will also help coordinate the study.
Transgenomic will provide an unspecified amount of funding for support staff at NYU-Langone for the duration of the study, which is estimated to take between one and two years.