Illumina to showcase the transformational impact of comprehensive genomic profiling in unlocking precision medicine for cancer patients, at ASCO

SAN DIEGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN), a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, today announced the acceptance of seven key oncology research abstracts authored in collaboration with Illumina at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting taking place June 3 – June 7 in Chicago. In addition, Illumina will host a related event, "Unlocking Precision Medicine: The Transformational Impact of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling," featuring Chief Medical Officer, Phil Febbo, MD; Kevin Keegan, Vice President and General Manager, Oncology; and a panel of leading oncologists from select community and academic programs. 

"At Illumina, we are seeing increased adoption of comprehensive genomic profiling in both in-house pathology labs and centralized labs to inform and enhance patient care," said Keegan. "Through our involvement in this year's ASCO, we look forward to learning more about and exploring the comprehensive genomic profiling experiences of leading oncology researchers to help inform this important work moving forward."

Illumina's mission in oncology is to save lives by enabling personalized cancer care through genomics. This includes increasing enablement for pathology labs to perform comprehensive genomic profiling for cancer tumors.

Comprehensive genomic profiling is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach that uses a single test to assess hundreds of genes including relevant cancer biomarkers, as established in medical guidelines and clinical trials, for solid tumor therapy guidance. CGP is being increasingly adopted by pathologists and oncologists to enhance their abilities to identify actionable biomarkers, which can lead to better matches between patients and precision therapies and clinical trials. Studies show that patients who receive a genomic match to biomarker-driven targeted therapies or immunotherapies experience improved clinical outcomes.

"For a physician, the priority is finding the best course of therapy for the patient as quickly as possible," said Dr. Febbo. "With a rapidly growing catalogue of targeted drugs and immunotherapies for many cancer types we are increasingly able to prescribe more and more personalized treatments. In addition, pan cancer markers identify an important group of patients that benefit from targeted therapy regardless of their tumor's tissue of origin."

Collaborations across the oncology field are vital to increasing clinical utility evidence for comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP). Illumina is proud to present the following results of joint studies at ASCO:

Identification of Clinically Actionable Biomarkers via Routine CGP Across a Large Community Health System, is an abstract summarizing data from a joint study between Illumina and Providence Health System. The results show the improvement in identification of clinically actionable biomarkers via routine CGP versus conventional testing methods (clinical actionability: 45% CGP vs. 19% small panel, p<0.001 and clinical trial eligibility: 49% CGP vs. 23% small panel, p<0.001). This highlights that adoption of CGP over conventional testing across a large community health network enables better patient access to highly effective cancer therapies.

Pathogenic fusion detection in solid malignancies utilizing RNA-DNA based CGP testing is a poster presentation, also a result of the collaboration between Illumina and Providence Health System. The results show that the 523-gene, combined DNA and RNA assay used at Providence Health System identified actionable fusion targets across tumor types in 7% (N=216) of patients. Of the patients with pathogenic fusions, 29% were actionable to a targeted therapy, and 31% eligible for 1 of 3 basket clinical trials. Conventional testing methods, namely FISH and DNA-only targeted panels, have technical limitations that prevent the detection of all relevant fusion partners. This potentially leads to false negatives, which would leave these patients without eligibility to highly effective therapies in absence of a combined DNA- and RNA-based CGP assay.

Blood-based CGP analysis is an emerging area of growth and interest as a complement to tissue-based tumor profiling or other alternatives when tissue is unavailable. In a poster session at ASCO, The National Cancer Institute will present data generated in collaboration with Illumina. The abstract is entitled Blood-based detection of actionable alterations from NCI-MATCH patients with no tissue results. As part of The Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH) study, it evaluated the blood-based detection of actionable alterations from NCI-MATCH patients with no tissue results. Pathologists observed variants in the blood samples consistent with what was reported in tumor tissue samples from the larger NCI-MATCH study cohort. Using liquid biopsy provided valuable mutation information for these patients and could have resulted in up to an additional 75 patients being eligible for treatment selection based on their mutation profile.

In addition to these, the following abstracts, authored in collaboration with Illumina, will be published.

Effective biomarker testing rates in a large U.S. oncology practice - Abstract presents data from real-world clinical utility study of CGP testing with Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute.

Assessing homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) in ovarian cancer - Optimizing concordance of the regulatory-approved companion diagnostic and a next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay kit - Study data resulting from collaboration with Institute of Pathology, Technical University of Munich, Merck, AstraZeneca and Myriad Genetics.

Prototype precision oncology learning ecosystem: Norwegian precision cancer medicine implementation initiative - Data resulting from national CGP trial in Norway - IMPRESS (Improving public cancer care by implementing precision medicine in Norway).

Actionability of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) compared to single-gene and small panels in patients with advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC): A real-world study - Illumina in partnership with Syapse are presenting an abstract from a study assessing advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (aNSCLC) patients.

Illumina continues to expand its broad portfolio of oncology partnerships with industry leaders, aimed at advancing cancer diagnostics and precision medicine. Most recently, in collaboration with Bayer, Illumina launched the first companion diagnostic claim for the TruSight^TM Oncology Comprehensive (EU) test enabling targeted therapy with Bayer's VITRAKVI® (larotrectinib) for patients with NTRK fusion cancer. Also recently announced was a collaboration with Allegheny Health Network  to evaluate the impact of in-house comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) to enhance patient care.

"There is growing engagement and awareness around CGP and we will work with our partners to continue expanding the evidence to help broaden reimbursement and drive awareness across provider communities for this testing," said Dr. Febbo. "We are fully committed to improving outcomes by enabling personalized cancer care through genomics."

Illumina is improving human health by unlocking the power of the genome. Our focus on innovation has established us as a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, serving customers in the research, clinical and applied markets. Our products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture and other emerging segments. To learn more, visit www.illumina.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

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SOURCE Illumina, Inc.