Innovative cancer diagnostics and treatment development company, Epic Sciences, Inc., will be attending the upcoming 26th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Barcelona to present a poster on a method to comprehensively detect clinically actionable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) biomarkers using circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating free DNA (cfDNA).
The poster titled, “Characterization of molecular targets of therapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) utilizing a liquid biopsy” will be presented by Epic’s Vice President of Marketing and Translational Research, Ryan Dittamore and is scheduled at 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 20th.
Cancer biomarkers are substances that indicate the presence of cancer, and are either secreted by the body’s responses or by the tumor itself. Today the most commonly tested biomarkers from tumor biopsies and serum samples are EGFR, KRAS, and ALK, but there remains much to be discovered and learned about other biomarkers.
Translating these findings to the clinical setting and having enough access to lung cancer biopsy material tends to be difficult. Murali Prahalad, Ph.D., the company’s President and CEO, said their CTC technology or “no cell left behind” allows them to fully assess NSCLC biomarkers from a single tube of blood, inclusive of EGFR, KRAS, ALK, MET, RET and ROS1.
A high percentage of lung cancers are NSCLC, making up 85% to 90% of all cases. NSCLC is further divided in 3 subtypes, which are differentiated by tumor cells’ size, shape and chemical properties. Ryan Dittamore explained Epic’s technology allows each patient to be matched to a targeted therapy according to a thorough analysis of these biomarkers. Importantly, all of these assays can be obtained from a single sample.
The company’s groundbreaking method is currently being evaluated and tested by some of the most prominent cancer centers in the country, including the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Jhanelle Gray, M.D., a thoracic medical oncologist at Moffitt, said Epic’s technology may potentially reshape the study of cancer biomarkers since it can reduce the need for numerous and more invasive sampling, and provide extensive information in real time for a more tailored treatment.
