September 6, 2022 A clinical trial evaluating genomic and related data from routine blood tests for cancer detection in real-world settings will begin. The study is sponsored by a computational diagnostics company Freenome Holdings Inc. in South San Francisco, in conjunction with a network of participating medical centers.
Freenome is developing cancer diagnostics that the company says make this possible detect and characterize cancer in the early stages of the disease, providing patients with more opportunities for prevention and treatment. According to Freenome, many other cancer screening methods use simplistic assumptions and models for a disease that is inherently dynamic and complex. The company claims its technology gives doctors more detailed information about a patient’s cancer than its presence or absence.
According to Freenome, that technologies applies machine learning algorithms and other computational techniques to genomic data obtained from routine blood tests. This analytics, according to the company, provides findings that highlight a number of biomarkers in patient blood samples, with indicators of the immune system and metabolic changes, as well as DNA in the blood emitted from tumor cells. While many liquid biopsies show a few mutations that characterize a patient’s cancer, Freenome says its analytics give doctors a more detailed and detailed picture earlier in the course of the disease, and thus better targets for precise treatment.
Focus on pancreatic and rectal cancer
New clinical trial planned to enroll approximately 8,000 participants aged 30 years and older at medical centers and regional health systems in the United States. Patients admitted to participating medical centers will be asked to provide 12 months of blood samples, a routine test performed in hospitals, for the study. . The samples will be split between patients with newly diagnosed cancer and other patients and analyzed using Freenome’s analytical platform. Initially, the company plans to focus on cancers with high unmet need, such as pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer.
“Our goal is to identify the right patient for the right screening tests at the right time with the right next steps,” says Freenome’s chief medical officer. Lance Baldo in company statement released via Cision. Balda adds, “We combine real-world data with clear thinking about health and clinical effectiveness.”
Collaboration with Freenome is Learning Health Network, a US medical center group and database software division of Oracle. The Learning Health Network has approximately 90 hospitals that offer de-identified real-world health data for clinical trials. Elligo Health Research in Austin, Texas, is assisting the project with participant identification and recruitment.
In February 2022 Science and entrepreneurship reports a similar clinical trial conducted by Freenome Holdings. This study, involving approximately 5,400 participants, matches participants diagnosed with different types of cancer and similar patients, looking for detailed biomarkers and indicators for specific types of cancer.
Freenome names its clinical trials for relatives of employees who have died of cancer. The new study is called the Sanderson study, after Tim Sanderson, father of the Freenome engineer.
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