Large International Tumor Profiling Study of Colorectal Cancer Provides Key Treatment Insights for World's Third Most Common Cancer

-- Research findings enable disease molecular sub-typing to lead to more informed clinical decision-making

IRVING, Texas, Jan. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences®, a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine, will present a large international tumor profiling study of colorectal cancer (CRC) at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium this week in San Francisco, Calif. With more than 7,000 patients comprehensively profiled by Caris Molecular Intelligence™, this study represents the largest, multi-national analysis in a single laboratory setting of the main molecular anomalies in colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, with metastatic disease accounting for 40 to 50 percent of newly diagnosed patients.

"This comprehensive analysis of more than 7,000 patient cases illustrates that treatment of this cancer as one single disease is a flawed approach.  The variety of mutations identified also point the way to new combinations of therapies and protein targets that can help direct future treatments," said Fadi Braiteh, M.D. and co-author on the study. "We are definitely moving from treating colon cancer as one disease to treating it as 20 to 30 different diseases. This research also highlights the feasibility of tumor profiling for colorectal cancer in the community setting, as well as establishes a high bar for standard of care for these patients."

This colorectal cancer study evaluated protein and DNA alterations in the EGFR pathway, including analysis of KRAS, NRAS, HRAS, BRAF, PIK3CA, ERBB4 and HER2 mutations/amplifications, as well as PTEN loss of expression and mutation in KRAS wild-type colorectal cancer patients. This dataset highlights the importance of the EGFR pathway in treating this disease by identifying a high frequency of specific and co-incident pathway alterations that have therapeutic implications.

"EGFR targeting therapies, cetuximab and panitumumab, are effective treatment for KRAS wild type CRC. Although mutations in KRAS predict resistance to EGFR Mab therapy, only 80 percent of CRC patients with KRAS wild type status respond to treatment," said Gargi Basu, Ph.D., from Caris Life Sciences and presenting author. "Testing for additional molecular alterations utilizing a multi-platform approach is critical to identifying those patients that are not likely to respond to anti-EGFR therapy alone and may respond better to a combination of targeted agents."

About Caris Molecular Intelligence™

Caris Molecular Intelligence™ has been the leading cancer profiling service on the market since 2006, having been used for more than 60,000 cancer patients and counting by more than 6,000 oncologists in at least 59 countries to help develop individualized and actionable treatment plans that seek to improve patient care.  Caris Molecular Intelligence™ utilizes the most comprehensive range of analytical technologies endorsed by the latest and most robust evidence — immunohistochemistries, fluorescence and chromogenic in situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction and Next-Generation sequencing – to provide oncologists the most complete and clinically relevant profile of a patient's unique cancer-related biomarkers. Unlike other commercially available tumor profiling services, Caris Molecular Intelligence™ more completely interrogates a patient's unique tumor biology by going beyond just DNA analysis. Caris' service assesses additional important biological components like RNA and protein expression levels to establish a multi-dimensional profile of a patient's tumor that reveals more fully the complex biological processes that are driving that patient's cancer and, therefore, more, relevant targets for potential clinical action. 

With a multi-dimensional profile of a patient's unique tumor, Caris Molecular Intelligence integrates insights from its proprietary and industry-leading evidence curation and bioinformatics platform to identify and report the most clinically relevant associations to drug therapies that are approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration or are in active clinical trials in the U.S. Managed by the Caris Evidence Design Board, a dedicated team of oncology experts that includes 5 Ph.D.s and 6 M.D.s, the Caris Molecular Intelligence evidence and bioinformatics platform curates, classifies and catalogues the findings and evidence from all relevant clinical studies in cancer and cancer biology available in the published scientific and medical literature, using a methodology adapted from the evidence review process of U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org) of the Agency for Health Research and Quality (www.ahrq.gov).  This platform incorporates the review of more than 100,000 publications and counting.  Relying on the most robust evidence that meets Caris' quality standards, the Caris Molecular Intelligence evidence and bioinformatics platform can currently provide therapeutic guidance for up to 43 drug associations with Caris' multi-dimensional approach to tumor profiling, far exceeding the 12 that can be identified using next-generation sequencing alone.  The Caris Molecular Intelligence bioinformatics platform electronically delivers the profile and all of these results in an easy-to-use report format that gives oncologists access to underlying evidence, enabling them to develop tailored treatment plans for each unique patient. For more information on Caris Molecular Intelligence™, visit www.carismolecularintelligence.com.

About Caris Life Sciences

Caris Life Sciences is a leading biosciences company focused on fulfilling the promise of personalized medicine.  As the first commercial mover in comprehensive molecular profiling in oncology, Caris Molecular Intelligence™ is an industry vanguard, with 60,000-plus patients profiled and counting. Ordered by nearly 6,000 oncologists in 59 countries, Molecular Intelligence correlates molecular data generated from a patient's tumor with biomarker/drug associations derived from clinical cancer literature. Using a variety of advanced and clinically-relevant technologies, Caris provides oncologists with the most clinically actionable information to help them personalize treatment for cancer patients. This multi-technology approach enables Caris to provide therapeutic guidance for 43 drug associations, compared to the 12 that can be found through use of next-generation sequencing alone. The company is also developing a series of blood tests based on its proprietary Carisome® platform — a revolutionary blood-based testing technology for diagnosis, prognosis, and theranosis of cancer and other complex diseases. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris Life Sciences offers services throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit www.carislifesciences.com.