Caris Life Sciences Enhances Molecular Profiling Service with Addition of ROS1 and MGMT-Methylation Biomarkers

-New Biomarkers provide expanded therapeutic insights to improve cancer patient outcomes

IRVING, Texas, Nov. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences™, a leading biosciences company focused on enabling personalized healthcare through molecular profiling and blood-based diagnostic services, has added ROS1 and MGMT-Methylation to the company's evidence-based molecular profiling service. The company is one of only a few entities that offer both of these tests commercially. These markers are believed to serve as clinically-important aids in the development of treatment plans for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and glioblastoma. 

Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technology, Caris' tumor profiling service detects clinically-relevant rearrangements of the ROS1 gene, which are predominantly found in young, non-smoking lung cancer patients.  Patients with theses ROS1 rearrangements have shown increased positive responses to crizotinib, an oral ALK inhibitor. Caris has also added MGMT-methylation (MGMT-ME) gene testing for glioblastoma patients, using pyrosequencing to detect methylation levels. Pyrosequencing was shown to be the best predictor of overall survival and progression-free survival in glioblastoma patients(1). MGMT-ME status is believed to be a useful predictor of glioblastoma patient response to temozolomide, as well as offer helpful prognostic insights.

"The additions of these genes to our molecular profiling service further aid oncologists in determining the appropriate therapeutic regimen for their NSCLC and glioblastoma patients," said Sandeep Reddy, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Senior Medical Director at Caris Life Sciences. "This demonstrates the dynamic, continually evolving nature of the service, which offers physicians the most clinically-relevant biomarker information available today." 

With more than 40,000 patients profiled to date, Caris Life Sciences' molecular profiling service offers comprehensive tumor biomarker analyses coupled with an extensive clinical literature review, which matches potential therapies to patient-specific biomarker information. Oncologists are provided simple-to-read reports indicating which available chemotherapeutic, biologic and hormone therapies are potentially effective, along with those that are potentially less effective, as well as information on appropriate and enrolling clinical trials. This service presents the most clinically-relevant, patient-specific information doctors need to individualize cancer treatment.

About Caris Life Sciences
Caris Life Sciences is a leading biosciences company focused on developing and delivering innovative molecular diagnostic, prognostic, and theranostic services. The company's evidence-based molecular profiling service matches molecular data generated from a patient's tumor with biomarker/drug associations derived from the world's leading clinical cancer literature. This service uses the most advanced and clinically relevant technologies to provide physicians with information to aid in the selection of personalized cancer treatments more likely to work for each patient. Caris is also developing a series of blood tests based on the company's proprietary Carisome™ platform — a proprietary, blood-based testing technology for diagnosis, prognosis, and theranosis of cancer and other complex diseases. Through the precise and personalized information provided by technologies like molecular profiling and Carisome, the company believes that the quality of healthcare can be dramatically improved, while also significantly reducing costs. Headquartered in the Dallas metroplex, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the United States, Europe, and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.carislifesciences.com.

(1) Quillien, V., D. Figarella‐Branger, et al. (2012). "Comparative Assessment of 5 Methods (Methylation‐Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction, MethyLight, Pyrosequencing, Methylation‐Sensitive High‐Resolution Melting, and Immunohistochemistry) to Analyze O6‐Methylguanine‐DNAMethyltranferase in a Series of 100 Glioblastoma Patients." Cancer 118: 4201‐11.