Alliance to Develop Diagnostics for Cancer-Drug Response

A new program plans to identify molecular profiles of multiple types of cancer for the development of diagnostic technologies and tests in the field of cancer-drug response prediction.

Over the next two years teams at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH, Boston, MA, USA) and AviaraDx Inc. (Carlsbad, CA, USA) will conduct a broad profiling program to determine genes, gene signatures, and polymorphisms that correlate with response to specific therapeutic agents for a wide range of different cancers. The initiative aims to identify and commercialize tumor biomarkers that predict which patients will respond to targeted drugs.

MGH and AviaraDx will perform gene sequencing and gene expression in a large number of cancers. The project results will provide guidance with regard to a broad range of cancer types that are likely to respond to an established drug.

Daniel A. Haber, M.D., Ph.D., and Jeff Settleman, Ph.D., of MGH have extensive experience in the identification of genetic markers associated with drug response. Mark Erlander, Ph.D., and Xiao-Ma, Ph.D., of AviaraDx, developed the company's molecular cancer identification technology (MCIT), which has been licensed to clinical laboratory partners in the United States and Europe.

"Our goal is the development of a rational basis for the selection of a specific drug regimen in a given patient,” said Dr. Haber, who is the director of the MGH Cancer center. "We are hopeful that this collaboration will generate technologies of relevant molecular diagnostic tests for predicting what therapy is best suited for specific patients.”



Related Links:
Massachusetts General Hospital
AviaraDX