Foundation Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering partner on hematologic cancer test

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—A partnership was announced today betweencancer diagnostics company Foundation Medicine and the Memorial Sloan-KetteringCancer Center for the advancement of patient care in hematologic cancers. Thefocus will be the co-development of a new molecular diagnostic product fromFoundation Medicine that is designed to match patients with hematologic cancerssuch as leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma with the best fit in terms of targetedtherapies or clinical trials for their particular cancer.

"Memorial Sloan-Kettering is one of the world's premiercancer centers with deep scientific and clinical understanding of hematologiccancers and a commitment to driving a new genomic paradigm of individualizedcancer care," Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and CEO of FoundationMedicine, said in a press release about the partnership. "Our approach is tocollaborate with leaders like Memorial Sloan-Kettering across all areas ofclinical oncology and cancer genomics and seek partners who are equally committedto the changing paradigm of cancer care. This is the ideal partnership tosupport the development of our new product for patients with hematologicmalignancies."

The new test is being developed through the use of RNAsequencing and DNA sequencing in order to better enable identification ofunique genes and classes of genome alternations that are linked to hematologicmalignancies. This new test will allow physicians to match genetic alterationswith targeted treatment plans that may fit each patient's genomic profile.

Technology, methods and computational algorithms developedby Foundation Medicine will form the basis of the test, which will becommercialized by Foundation Medicine in the United States and internationally,and Memorial Sloan-Kettering will contribute its clinical and genomic expertisein hematologic malignancies to accelerate development. The test is expected tobe commercially available by the end of the year.

"The development of clinical-grade sequencing is rapidlychanging the practice of oncology, enabling us to more precisely understand andtarget the genomic alterations that drive a patient's individual cancer. We arepartnering with Foundation Medicine to develop a best-in-class assay forhematologic cancers because we view achieving this goal as an extension of ourmission as a comprehensive cancer center: making it possible for all patientsto be treated with the therapy that is matched with their individual cancer,"Craig B. Thompson, M.D., president and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering CancerCenter, commented in a statement.

The new test will complement and be similar to FoundationMedicine's first product,

FoundationOne, a fully informative genomic profile thatprovides identification of a patient's individual molecular alterations foreasier matching with appropriate therapies and clinical trials. The assay isgeared toward solid tumors and was launched last year.

SOURCE: Foundation Medicine press release