Seattle, Washington April 16, 2015 // Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science and Resolution Bioscience, Inc. today announced the successful completion of a collaborative agreement to co-develop a novel, blood-based, clinic ready, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) assay for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The collaboration is the first to demonstrate the successful sequencing of clinically actionable ALK, RET, and ROS1 fusions in blinded plasma samples and highlights the ability to discover all types of actionable mutations in a single assay from a standard blood draw. The results will be presented at the 2015 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting on April 19th and in a joint publication to follow.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. Genetic testing of lung cancer has transformed the ability to deliver personalized targeted therapies for lung cancer patients. However, current genetic tests are often limited by the availability of tumor biopsy tissue, sometimes requiring that additional invasive biopsies be performed resulting in serious and expensive complications. “If we want to realize the potential of targeted therapies in lung cancer, we need to make it easier to characterize the cancer and match the patient to the right drug”, said Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Geoffrey Oxnard, MD, an oncologist and researcher in the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at the Dana-Farber.

Data from the initial collaboration using blinded, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) specimens suggest the performance of the lung-cancer specific panel yields sensitive and highly specific results for SNVs and indels while also enabling the discovery of copy number variation and novel fusion events in individual patients’ blood, formerly detectable only with a tissue-based NGS analysis. “A rapid assay that can non-invasively produce an actionable result with no false positives is very intriguing”, said Cloud Paweletz, PhD, of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at Dana-Farber and Co-Principal Investigator of the collaboration.

The Resolution Bio platform combines the cost and speed advantages of a desktop sequencer, such as the Illumina’s MiSeq^®, with proprietary library construction and bioinformatics, developed by Resolution, to deliver accurate results in as little as a week. Importantly, any accredited molecular pathology lab with a MiSeq could, with the right technical expertise and bioinformatics support, implement this assay to guide the care of advanced NSCLC patients. The platform is easily accessible to other target genomic regions and thus extendable to additional indications and targeted therapies. “Our goal was to create a comprehensive, clinically-practical, and actionable tool to aid clinicians in treating their patients.” said Resolution Bio CEO, Mark Li.

About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is world-renowned for its leadership in adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research. Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), it is one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of NCI and National Institutes of Health grant funding. For more information, go to www.dana-farber.org.

About Resolution Bioscience Inc.
Resolution Bioscience (Bellevue, WA) was founded in 2012 by leading experts in next generation sequencing, genomic analysis and commercial product development. The company’s mission is to transform cancer outcomes by providing physicians and pharmaceutical companies with clinic-ready, noninvasive tools and technologies to guide the development and clinical implementation of personalized treatment strategies.