Collaboration Agreement Targets Tumor-Related Genes

A German biomedical company has entered into a collaborative agreement with a major Norwegian hospital that focuses on the identification of cancer-related tumor genes that predict a patient’s response or resistance to targeted therapies.

The German biomedical company New Oncology (Cologne, Germany) has announced the establishment of a collaborative agreement with University Hospital Oslo (Norway). New Oncology will apply its proprietary diagnostic platform "NEO" to the problem of identifying cancer-related tumor genes that predict a patient’s response or resistance to targeted therapies.

The "NEO" diagnostic platform enables physicians to select the optimal targeted therapy for their patients, including participation in suitable clinical trials. The cancer diagnostic test NEOplus, which is available through certified pathologists, is an efficient, time-saving diagnostic assay that enables parallel analysis of all therapy-relevant genomic alterations in minute amounts of paraffin embedded material. Within 10–15 working days NEOplus detects mutations, amplifications, deletions, and translocations in over 80 oncogenes, tumor suppressors, and microsatellite DNA. In addition, NEOplus is suited to analyzing all solid tumor types.

Physicians receive a detailed medical report within 10–15 working days after receipt of the patient’s sample. The medical report suggests suitable targeted therapies and an individualized recommendation for treatment if actionable genetic alterations are identified. In addition to treatment options, the report also provides information on relevant clinical trials.

“Dramatic responses to targeted therapies in patients with advanced solid tumors bearing drug-sensitizing mutations have shifted the paradigm of cancer treatment towards a comprehensive molecular characterization before initiation of treatment. The growing number of targeted drugs, different types of targetable genome alterations, and the occurrence of resistance mechanisms are increasing challenges for clinical diagnostics. Technological and computational advances in the field of tumor diagnostics finally put us in the position to perform comprehensive, sensitive and fast analysis of all different types of genome alterations on routine tumor specimens. This is a pivotal step in matching the right patients with the right drugs, providing broad access to personalized cancer medicine to all patients,” said Dr. Roman Thomas, professor of cancer genomics at the University of Cologne (Germany) and a founder of New Oncology.

Related Links:
New Oncology
University Hospital Oslo
University of Cologne