On November 21, 2019 Biocept, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIOC), a leading commercial provider of liquid biopsy tests designed to provide physicians with clinically actionable information to improve the outcomes of patients diagnosed with cancer, reported the commercial availability of its Target Selector pan-TRK assay for the detection of TRK proteins (Press release, Biocept, NOV 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234551600]). With the Biocept assay, a simple blood sample can help inform physicians on the potential presence of NTRK fusions, which are actionable biomarkers that can be used to qualify patients for treatment with TRK inhibitor therapies. With the launch of this new assay, Biocept now offers 20 CLIA-certified liquid biopsy tests utilizing its Target Selector platform to determine the status of actionable solid tumor biomarkers.
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"Biocept’s Target Selector pan-TRK assay utilizes our proprietary circulating tumor cell (CTC) platform, which enables a simple blood-based test to screen for TRK gene alternations, a unique liquid biopsy offering," said Veena Singh, MD, Senior Vice President and Senior Medical Director at Biocept. "Biocept’s novel liquid biopsy tests are designed to help physicians rapidly and in real-time identify key biomarkers of interest to facilitate the clinical decision making process."
"We continue to execute on expanding our menu of non-invasive and cost-effective biomarker tests," said Biocept’s President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Nall. "Biocept now offers 20 commercially available liquid biopsy assays including two tumor-specific next generation sequencing panels that cover the most actionable genomic alterations for solid tumors. We believe that this comprehensive offering, including the addition of our Target Selector pan-TRK test, will help us increase adoption of our liquid biopsy platform in the oncology market."
About Biocept’s Liquid Biopsy pan-TRK Test for Potential NTRK Fusions
Precision medicine in oncology continues to evolve as the number of clinically validated biomarkers to determine treatment pathways for specific tumor types is growing. Genomic profiling has identified fusions of the NTRK gene, involving either NTRK1, NTRK2 or NTRK3, which encode for the protein receptors TRKA, TRKB and TRKC, respectively1. The presence of TRK proteins has been associated with more aggressive cancer in certain tumor types, such as lung cancer2. Currently, for qualified patients with NTRK fusions, there are two approved first-generation TRK inhibitor therapies on the market, Vitrakvi (larotrectinib) and Rozlytrek (entrectinib), which are associated with high clinical response rates (>75%)3. While the prevalence of NTRK fusions is low, they can be found across a broad range of tumor types, therefore testing patients for this family of biomarkers may be warranted4. Biocept’s novel Target Selector pan-TRK assay is a liquid biopsy test designed to detect NTRK antibodies from a patient’s blood sample. Sensitivity and specificity between the presence of TRK proteins and FISH detection of NTRK fusions is 95.2% and 100%5, respectively, therefore, Biocept’s pan-TRK assay can be used as a simple and cost-effective method for determining the potential presence of NTRK fusions and whether further testing is advised. For more information about Biocept’s Target Selector testing, please contact Biocept Customer Services at 888.332.7729.