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Source: Insight Genetics

Insight Genetics Launches First-of-its-kind Test for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Insight TNBCtype™ has potential to accelerate clinical research and advance targeted therapies for difficult to treat breast cancer

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Insight Genetics, Inc. today announced the launch of its proprietary Insight TNBCtype, a new test for categorizing triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumors into distinct molecular subtypes through its wholly owned CLIA- and CAP-accredited lab, Insight Molecular LabsInsight TNBCtype™, the first and only CLIA-validated assay for TNBC molecular subtyping, will enable prospective clinical trials with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic medical institutions and advance targeted therapies for TNBC patients, addressing a significant unmet need in oncology today.

The test will be featured in posters presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium from December 4-8, 2018, in San Antonio, Texas.

“Triple negative breast cancer has long been a challenge for oncologists and the patients they treat because there are few proven treatment options,” said Eric Dahlhauser, Insight Genetics Chairman and CEO. “It is our hope that Insight TNBCtype™ will advance treatment and diagnosis of this disease, improving the lives of the 35,000 diagnosed patients in the US each year.  We believe this test can further enable clinical trial testing and ultimately become the standard of care for TNBC patients bringing TNBC into the age of precision medicine.”

Historically, TNBC has been defined as tumors that are negative for ER, PR, and HER2 expression, and comprises up to 15-20 percent of all breast cancers.  TNBC is an aggressive disease with a higher risk of both local and distant recurrence compared to patients with other types of breast cancer.

Insight TNBCtype™ was developed from years of collaborative studies with leading academic research investigators, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and advances the seminal work in TNBC molecular subtyping by Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD and Brian Lehmann, PhD at Vanderbilt University, with which Insight Genetics has a global exclusive license.

The Insight TNBCtype™ test is based on a proprietary algorithm that uses gene expression data from next-generation sequencing to generate five molecular subtypes (BL1, BL2, LAR, MSL and M), as well as a complementary immunomodulatory (IM) classifier that may help predict response to immuno-oncology therapies. Insight Genetics has worked extensively to refine the TNBC classification algorithm to maximize its potential for clinical use by reducing the number of genes from over 2,000 down to 101, allowing heterogeneous tumors to be classified by more than one subtype, and optimizing the test for use on single patient samples.

For existing standard of care chemotherapy treatments, two published studies have demonstrated the need to understand the TNBC molecular subtypes, especially for BL1 and BL2 patients.  The Clinical Cancer Research paper “Differential Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy among Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes” highlights BL1 patients who received neoadjuvant taxane and anthracycline-based therapy had a pathological complete response (pCR) rate of 52 percent, while BL2 patients had a  zero percent pCR (Masuda, et.al. 2013). The PLoS One paper “Refinement of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes: Implications for Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Selection” demonstrated that TNBC subtypes significantly differ in response to similar neoadjuvant chemotherapy with 41 percent of BL1 patients achieving pCR, while only 18 percent for BL2 (Lehmann, et. al. 2016). 

Insight Genetics will be at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and Insight TNBCtype™ will be highlighted in two posters:

  • Impact of molecular subtypes on long term outcomes in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients treated with adjuvant AC chemotherapy on SWOG S9313 (Sharma et. al.) #787 P4-08-06 Session
     
  • Molecular subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumor samples obtained before and after neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) and relationship between immunomodulatory (IM) gene signature and intensity of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) (Masuda et. al.) #984 P4-02-05 Session

About Insight Genetics
Insight Genetics is dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients through advanced molecular diagnostics that enable precision cancer care. The company specializes in the discovery, development and commercialization of molecular diagnostics that detect specific cancer biomarkers in triple negative breast cancer and lung cancer to assist in guiding the effective diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of cancer. Insight Genetics partners with leading academic researchers, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, clinical reference laboratories, and IVD kit manufacturers to create new standards of care for cancer patients worldwide. Visit www.insightgenetics.com for more information.

Contact:
Sarah Brawner
sarah.brawner@finnpartners.com
615-610-0323