On March 17, 2022 GeneCentric Therapeutics, a company making precision medicine more precise through RNA-based diagnostics, reported the upcoming oral presentation of the discovery and initial clinical utility of a novel signature that identifies patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that may benefit from treatment beyond typical surgical resection (Press release, GeneCentric Therapeutics, MAR 17, 2022, View Source [SID1234610283]). The presentation will be made at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, one of the world’s largest and long-standing scientific gatherings in the field of cancer research, which is being held in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 8-13, 2022. The results to be presented are from an ongoing collaboration with Jose P. Zevallos, MD, MPH, at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Neil Hayes, MD, MPH, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Center for Cancer Research to discover and develop new prognostic and/or predictive signatures and related tests to aid in the selection of treatments for HNSCC.

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Multiple independent retrospective datasets were utilized as part of the initial signature discovery, including those providing for its initial clinical utility. Oral cavity HNSCC patients with lymph node-negative disease, who are typically treated with surgical resection without additional radiation and/or chemotherapy, were identified as mesenchymal or non-mesenchymal based upon the novel RNA-based signature. For the nearly one-quarter who were mesenchymal, survival was 2.4-fold worse compared to the remaining non-mesenchymal patients. A future diagnostic test, based upon this signature and related clinical findings, potentially may be used to ‘upstage’ patients typically receiving only surgical reduction to become candidates for the addition of radiation and/or chemotherapy.

"I am excited to present our initial findings from this important collaboration with my colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine and GeneCentric evaluating molecular subtypes for head and neck cancer," said Neil Hayes, MD, MPH, GeneCentric co-founder and Director of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Center for Cancer Research. "In this study, our new RNA-based signature identified a significant population of patients who typically only undergo surgical resection based upon their lymph node status but have poor prognosis, making them likely candidates for additional treatment options such as radiation and/or chemotherapy."

Full results from the initial molecular analysis and clinical utility from this study, as well as potential future applications, will be presented at the conference. Further demonstration of clinical utility is ongoing, as well as initial test development discussions with several commercial reference laboratories.

Details regarding the presentation are provided below and will be available following the meeting at View Source

Title: Prognostic and predictive applications from mesenchymal gene expression subtype analysis for early-stage, HPV(-) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

First Author: Neil Hayes, MD, MPH, Department of Medical Oncology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Center for Cancer Research, Memphis, Tennessee

Abstract Number: 2142

Session: Session MS.CL11.02 – Biomarkers 2

Date: April 11, 2022

Time: 3:20-3:35 PM CST

About Head and Neck Cancer

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and in the United States it is estimated that there were approximately 66,000 new cases and 14,00 deaths in 2021. The 5-year overall survival for Stage I-II and III-IV HNSCC is approximately 70-90% and 40-60%, respectively. Oral cavity HNSCC is the most common head and neck cancer, accounting for one-third of cases with a majority HPV-negative and associated with tobacco use. While the treatment of HNSCC depends on multiple tumor and patient-related factors, the three main treatments are surgical resection, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Patients with early-stage lymph node-negative tumors are generally treated with surgical resection, but treatment for those with more advanced lymph node-positive tumors often includes radiation and/or chemotherapy.