Precision Medicine Partnership Aims to Advance Cancer Care

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and Cofactor Genomics are collaborating to boost patient outcomes in cancer care using precision medicine techniques.

The partnership will aim to improve a physician’s ability to predict tumor response to immunotherapy, specifically in recurrent and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (RM-HNSCC).

The current clinical care pathway for recurrent and metastatic head and neck cancers relies on outdated technologies for treatment decisions. Providers need new clinical decision support tools that can help them make confident treatment choices.

“Predicting tumor response prior to treatment is a necessary part of the precision medicine challenge,” said Ezra Cohen, MD, Chief of the Division of Hematology‐Oncology at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center. “Working with immune checkpoint inhibitors, a class of therapies that are already approved and proven to work in a subset of patients, is a low-risk, high-reward approach.”

Through the partnership, UCSD will provide Cofactor Genomics with access to patient specimens and clinical metadata. Data generated in this partnership will further expand on innovative methods of predicting responders to therapy.

“Cofactor is approaching diagnostic development in a number of ways that are unique. Integrating multiple immune signals into a single clinical decision simultaneously simplifies and expands how we leverage this information,” said Cohen.

The collaboration will leverage the expertise of physicians at UCSD, facilitating the development of advanced solid tumor therapeutics.

“The UCSD Moores Cancer Center is well-recognized as both a leader in clinical research, and perhaps more importantly, patient care,” said Natalie LaFranzo, PhD, Vice President of Market Development for Cofactor. “As Cofactor’s technology moves into clinical practice, partnerships with leaders in cancer care, such as Dr. Cohen, are an integral part of adoption.”

Experts have described multidimensional biomarkers as an ideal approach to obtaining a complete view of the tumor microenvironment, necessary for predicting immunotherapy response. These biomarkers integrate the distinct differences in the tumor profile between the tumors of responders and non-responders to immunotherapy.

RM-HNSCC is one of 16 indicators approved for treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors, the sum of which represents 50 percent of US cancer cases annually. Predictive diagnostics are a major part of UCSD’s precision medicine goals, as supported by the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy.

“Our goal is to transform cancer therapy by using advanced technological tools to predict who will respond to a specific treatment, and to match each patient with the best drug for a particular tumor,” UCSD stated.

“Recent technological advances have made it possible to generate a profile of the abnormalities in the genetic code of a tumor. By gathering enough data, we can identify profiles that will allow us to begin to tailor cancer treatments to individual patients.”

As part of the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy, physicians may order molecular testing of a patient’s tumor genetic profile, as well as review medical information with a board of expert physicians and world-class scientists to discuss best treatment options.

Precision medicine and genome sequencing are becoming increasingly integrated into routine clinical care practices. UC San Francisco (UCSF) recently launched an initiative to offer free genome sequencing to all UCSF Health patients, with the goal of creating a genomic database of diverse populations.

The project will help researchers collect genomic data on minority and underserved populations, leading to more precise treatments for more patients.

“We need to be able to identify and respond to diseases much earlier than we are now using preventive therapies based on deep understanding of disease biology,” said UCSF Chief Genomics Officer Aleks Rajkovic, MD, PhD, medical director of the UCSF Health Center for Clinical Genetics and Genomics, who is leading the new initiative.

“Central to that is having genetic data on a diverse spectrum of patient populations that can teach us how to keep everyone well rather than responding in crisis when they become ill.”