Epic Sciences Presents Detection and Characterization of Rare Peripheral CTC Immunogenicity and T-Cell Activation

SAN DIEGO, May 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At the 2018 AACR annual meeting, Epic Sciences presented data from two studies demonstrating the company's "No Cell Left Behind" detection platform's capability to analyze potential markers of response to immuno-oncology (IO) agents, such as checkpoint inhibitors, vaccines, and CAR-T therapies. The first study presented single-cell sequencing of CTCs to detect DNA damage repair deficiencies (MSI or HRD) often associated with chromosomal instability or neo-antigen formation. The second study presented detection of rare immune cell populations, in this case T-cell activation (CD4/CD8/Ki67), from the same stable archived peripheral blood samples previously prepared for CTC analysis.

"Patient selection as well as early identification of patient non-response to immuno-oncology therapy is a significant unmet medical need and impacts many cancer types," said Ryan Dittamore, chief of medical innovation at Epic Sciences. "The biologic complexity of tumor immunogenicity and host immune system activation, regulation, and exhaustion requires analysis of both the tumor and the host. Until now, tools have been focused on either the tumor or host, but rarely both. With analytic and clinical feasibility of our multimodal immuno-oncology characterization panels, we are broadly applying the panels across multiple academic and pharma clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of immuno-oncology therapies."

"Independent observations of sub-clonal tumor burden with high mutational rates and dynamic changes in T-cell activation demonstrate the utility of Epic's unique multimodal approach.  This approach enables not only the monitoring of pharmacodynamic changes on therapy but also highlight the platform's potential to detect sensitivity to immune therapy both as single agents and in combination," said Mark Landers, vice president of translational research at Epic Sciences.

Epic Sciences is currently developing additional tool sets to further characterize T-cell exhaustion and suppression and other immune regulatory cells, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs).

About Epic Sciences

Epic Sciences, Inc. is developing novel diagnostics to personalize and advance the treatment and management of cancer. Epic Sciences' mission is to enable the rapid and non-invasive detection of genetic and molecular changes in cancer throughout a patient's journey. The company was founded on a powerful platform to identify and characterize rare cells, including circulating tumor cells. Epic Sciences No Cell Left Behind® technology helps match patients to therapies and monitor for drug resistance, so that the best treatment path can be chosen at every clinical decision point. Epic Sciences has partnered with Genomic Health to commercialize the Oncotype DX® AR-V7 Nucleus DetectTMtest, which helps with therapeutic decisions between taxane chemotherapy or androgen-directed therapeutics in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Today, we partner with leading pharmaceutical companies and major cancer centers around the world. Epic Sciences' goal is to increase the success rate of cancer drugs in clinical trials and improve patient outcomes by providing physicians real-time information to guide treatment choices. Epic Sciences is headquartered in San Diego.