Novel approach based on InVision® liquid biopsy platform predicts response to immune checkpoint inhibitors

in Industry News, Press Releases October 9, 2019

Inivata, a leader in liquid biopsy, and collaborators at Toulouse University Hospital and Inserm’s Cancer Research Center of Toulouse (CRCT) have published a novel approach to predicting patient response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The data from the study, published in Lung Cancer, showed that, using a single tube of blood at the start of the PD-1 therapy, a novel algorithm based on the results of InVision circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) testing was able to identify responders and non-responders to therapy in a group of 97 NSCLC patients with a high level of accuracy. This approach was recently granted a patent by the US patent office. In addition, the data from this study also highlights that the change in ctDNA during the early treatment window can predict whether the patient, in real time, is responding to the ICI therapy.

Clive Morris, Chief Executive Officer at Inivata, said: “This latest study provides exciting clinical evidence that the InVision ctDNA liquid biopsy platform could potentially be used to predict response to PD-1 inhibitors as well as actionable genomic alterations associated with targeted therapies. Many patients with advanced NSCLC are candidates for immunotherapy, and we hope our novel response prediction approach will help to guide the most appropriate use of such therapies in the future. Using a simple blood draw, our platform is able to unlock genomic information from patients which can offer a solution in cases where tissue testing is not available, enabling more informed treatment decisions for clinicians and improving clinical outcomes for patients.”

Dr Nicolas Guibert MD, PhD, Toulouse University Hospital said: “Immune checkpoint inhibitors are rapidly changing the treatment landscape for NSCLC but durable clinical benefit is limited to certain subsets of patients. Patient selection and response prediction are crucial and these results show that the Inivata InVision liquid biopsy platform has a unique ability to select patients for either genotype-directed therapies or ICI using one unique assay, particularly when tissue is not available.”

Source – Globe Newswire

Guibert N, Jones G, Beeler JF, Plagnol V, Morris C, Mourlanette J, Delaunay M, Keller L, Rouquette I, Favre G, Pradines A, Mazieres J. (2019) Targeted sequencing of plasma cell-free DNA to predict response to PD1 inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Lung Cancer 137:1-6. [abstract]