Precision medicine company Myriad Genetics announced that it has entered into five ongoing research collaborations aimed at studying the use of molecular residual disease (MRD) testing in breast cancer using Myriad's Precise MRD test.
The Precise MRD test is a whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-based test that monitors tumor-specific variants to enable quantification of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the blood of patients with cancer. The Precise MRD test can be used to monitor ctDNA levels beginning immediately after diagnosis and continuing through treatment and surveillance, Myriad explained in a statement.
The research collaborations in which the Precise MRD test will be evaluated include the following:
- A study led by Dr. Bora Lim at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to determine whether ctDNA levels may predict the response to Merck's Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and hormonal therapy in patients with HR-positive inflammatory breast cancer who did not have a complete response at the time of surgery
- A study led by Dr. Anna Weiss at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY, aimed at evaluating whether ctDNA levels correlate with nodal involvement in patients with newly diagnosed HR-positive breast cancer and, if so, how this correlation may aid in decision-making
- A multicenter prospective Monitor breast study aimed at determining the association of ctDNA levels to both neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer across all subtypes. The Monitor breast study will assess the prognostic potential of ctDNA and the lead time for detecting recurrence before imaging, the current standard of care
- The multicenter prospective study JBCRG-C11 (CREA) that will evaluate the maintenance of a complete response with trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) in HER2-positive advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients and whether ctDNA can be used to guide therapy
- A study in partnership with Aptitude Health to assess ctDNA levels in high-risk patients at diagnosis, during neoadjuvant treatment, and following surgery
Myriad has collaborated with other partners on MRD studies, including a study predicting treatment response in patients with metastatic breast cancer with researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.