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Illumina software supports cancer study
October 2016
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
SAN DIEGO—In August, Illumina Inc. noted
that the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) had launched its first ever clinical trial, the
Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) Study—and that Illumina software is along for the ride.
TAPUR is designed to evaluate molecularly targeted cancer drugs and collect data on clinical outcomes to learn about additional uses of these drugs
outside of indications already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Qualifying cancer patients with
advanced disease whose cancer has not responded to standard treatment are eligible to enter the study through one of the growing list of over 35
participating clinical sites, Illumina notes. If a patient has tumor genomic test results that reveal a potentially actionable genomic variation, a clinician
will review drugs available through TAPUR that potentially target that variation.
Available in the study right now
are 17 drugs providing 15 targeted therapies; however, if a relevant drug-target match is not described in the protocol, clinicians may consult the TAPUR
study’s Molecular Tumor Board, which will review the clinical and genomic features of the case and identify potential treatment options on and off the
study for consideration by the treating physician.
As Illumina notes, “Such a process can be cumbersome
outside of the research setting because sequencing data are becoming more abundant and there are a number of drugs available—as such, it is
increasingly difficult to search through and interpret the data.”
To support the process, the Molecular
Tumor Board has access to information from Illumina’s BaseSpace Biomarker Repository software (formerly known as NextBio KnowledgeBase) to support and
inform TAPUR participant case review.
Illumina says its KnowledgeBase product containing various drug-variant
associations also informed development of the TAPUR automatic identification and selection rules. Subjects are annotated against the KnowledgeBase using
BaseSpace Cohort Analyzer. For the study's Molecular Tumor Board, the focus is on reviewing a participant’s variants and possible associated drugs.
TAPUR is designed to analyze efficacy and toxicity outcomes of patients who receive study therapy. To help automate the study workflow, ASCO also is using
the Syapse Precision Medicine Platform.
In the short term, according to Illumina, the TAPUR study may benefit
participating physicians by helping them learn to interpret genomic data, adding, “Likewise, participating pharmaceutical companies receive study data
that may help identify potential new uses for existing cancer drugs. And most importantly, study participants gain access to experimental therapies that may
not normally be available to them, as well as study researchers who have expertise in applying genomic information in a research setting.”
In the long run, the company notes, the potential benefit is even more profound, as “This study addresses the
inherently iterative process required to improve cancer treatments by learning from every patient.”
In other
Illumina software news from August, the company announced that it and FlowJo LLC had formed a
partnership to develop and co-market analysis software for single-cell next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. Under the agreement FlowJo, the producer of
FlowJo, a market-leading software solution for single cell analysis, will develop a new software application. It will provide additional secondary and
tertiary analysis and visualization of datasets with an intuitive approach built on 19 years of experience working with cell biologists and immunologists in
single cell phenotyping. The application is being designed to seamlessly integrate with Illumina’s Single Cell RNA BaseSpace app, and provide a
solution accelerating discovery.
“We are excited to partner with Illumina on this project to bring new tools
for analyzing and visualizing NGS data to cell biology,” said Dr. Michael Stadnisky, CEO of FlowJo. “The new offering will enhance the power of
single cell biology research by empowering robust exploration of data from Illumina next-generation sequencing runs.”
The software will complement the end-to-end commercial solution for high-throughput sequencing of single cells that Illumina announced it is co-
developing in partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories. FlowJo and Illumina expect the software to be
available in the first quarter of 2017.
Code: E101619 Back |
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