On July 8, 2025 Caris Life Sciences (NASDAQ: CAI), a leading, patient-centric, next-generation AI TechBio company and precision medicine pioneer, reported a landmark study published in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, demonstrating the accuracy and clinical utility of the Caris Assure blood-based biopsy assay across the cancer continuum (Press release, Caris Life Sciences, JUL 8, 2025, View Source [SID1234654291]).
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The Caris Assure platform is a breakthrough single assay that combines comprehensive, highly sophisticated molecular profiling of all 23,000+ genes across DNA and RNA in plasma, setting a new blood-based testing standard and revolutionizing management of the cancer care journey. Additionally, Caris sequences DNA in the "buffy coat," the layer of centrifuged blood between the red blood cells and plasma, which contains white blood cells and platelets. Caris Assure combines Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing (WTS) with advanced machine learning on a single platform. Caris Assure is currently used for therapy selection and is capable of enabling accurate early detection and highly sensitive disease monitoring.
"We designed Caris Assure to be more than a liquid biopsy test. This assay takes advantage of advanced sequencing and computing technology to capture genetic information available from the whole exome and whole transcriptome from the tumor material circulating in the blood and DNA from the patient’s white blood cells," said David Spetzler, MS, PhD, MBA, President of Caris. "This enables us to provide a very comprehensive individualized picture of a patient’s specific disease state. This is the first time so much molecular information has been available from a single blood test, allowing for increased accuracy and additional insights to inform physicians in helping to make cancer care decisions."
The Caris Assure liquid biopsy platform, powered by the Assure Blood-based Cancer Detection AI (ABCDai), was trained on over 376,000 whole exome and whole transcriptome tissue profiles and over 7,000 matched blood and tissue samples. In addition to therapy selection, the study validates the performance of Caris Assure in:
Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED): Achieved sensitivities of 83.1% to 95.7% across cancer stages I–IV at 99.6% specificity.
Diagnostic Pathway Predictor: Accurately identified the diagnostic pathway for MCED-positive cancers using the ABCDai-GPS model.
MRD and Recurrence Monitoring: Demonstrated significant predictive power for recurrence, with hazard ratios of 33.4 (p < 0.005) for MRD and 4.39 (p = 0.008) for therapeutic monitoring.
Caris Assure does not require a prior tissue biopsy. Instead, its AI model identifies tumor-derived signals based on patterns learned from hundreds of thousands of tumors. This enables a tissue-agnostic, highly sensitive approach to cancer detection and monitoring.
While Caris Assure is currently commercially available for therapy selection in advanced cancers, this study lays the groundwork for expanding into early detection, MRD and therapeutic monitoring. Caris is actively pursuing reimbursement and regulatory pathways to bring these applications to market.
"This is more than a validation study; it is a blueprint for the future of cancer diagnostics," added Spetzler. "Our goal is to create a seamless ecosystem where patients and clinicians can rely on one platform throughout the entire cancer journey."