30 sep. 2018
Cyclomics, in collaboration with the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Netherlands Cancer Institute, will use their highly accurate CyclomicsSeq technology to monitor TP53 mutations in circulating tumor DNA for recurrence detection and treatment response in advanced stage head and neck cancer patients, supported by a grant from the Oncode Institute.
In a combined effort, Cyclomics in collaboration with the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Netherlands Cancer Institute, will test their circulating tumor DNA sequencing technology for recurrence detection and treatment response monitoring in patients with advanced stage head and neck cancer.
More than 90% of patient with HPV-negative head and neck cancer contain mutations in the TP53 gene. Cyclomics developed an highly-accurate assay to detect TP53 mutation in single ctDNA molecules.
Clinical studies have been initiated a the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Netherlands Cancer Institute to monitor tumor burden in patients with head-and-neck cancer following chemo-radiation therapy, and during treatment with chemo-radiation or immunotherapy (ipilimumab).
“This grant enables us to proof the strength of Cyclomics technology in real patient samples”, says Wigard Kloosterman, founder of Cyclomics and group leader at the University Medical Center Utrecht. “We can now determine the clinical benefits of careful and repeated monitoring of tumor burden during and after treatment”, he continues.
The grant was funded by the Oncode Institute, a recently established virtual research institute supporting the efforts of many top cancer-scientists in the Netherlands.