NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Guardant Health and COTA said today that have formed a collaboration to study the barriers preventing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients from having their cancer's driver mutations genomically profiled in community settings.
Guardant currently sells Guardant360, a next-generation sequencing-based test that analyzes the expression of 70 genes to identify genomic mutations in advanced cancer patients for whom initial or repeat biopsies are not desirable. It is designed to help clinicians monitor their patients' disease progression and select genomically targeted therapies.
COTA, meanwhile, has developed a system for classifying cancer patients and detecting variance in specific treatments, clinical outcomes, and costs.
Together, the partners said they plan to explore testing rates, repeat biopsies and their complications, delays in result reporting, costs of invasive tissue biopsies, and other factors that preclude routine genotyping of NSCLC patients. They will also conduct cost/benefit and outcome analyses to define the clinical utility of a blood-based genotyping approach for treatment selection in patients with advanced NSCLC.
"With the costs of cancer care rising every year, patients, health systems and payers are all demanding better care at lower costs," Guardant CEO Helmy Eltoukhy said in a statement. "New technologies should not only push the envelope in terms of clinical utility, they should also provide greater value. We're excited about this partnership with COTA to help demonstrate this with real-world data."