On October 19, 2018 GRAIL, Inc., a healthcare company focused on the early detection of cancer, reported that new data from the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study will be presented by Minetta Liu, MD, Research Chair and Professor, Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic, in an oral presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) 2018 Congress taking place October 19 – 23 in Munich, Germany (Press release, Grail, OCT 19, 2018, View Source [SID1234529982]).

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CCGA is a prospective, observational, longitudinal study of approximately 15,000 participants. In the first CCGA sub-study, three prototype genome sequencing assays were used to analyze blood samples from 2,800 participants. Data from approximately 1,800 of these participants were presented earlier this year at the 2018 annual meetings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper).1,2

The new data being presented at ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper) are results from the 1,010 remaining participants from the same sub-study, which were analyzed separately for verification of the initial results. Results between the two data sets were similar, showing the prototype assays consistently detected strong signals in participants’ blood samples at high specificity for multiple cancer types. Slides with detailed results will be posted on GRAIL’s website after the presentation at grail.com/science/publications.

Presentation Details

Abstract 50O

Plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) assays for early multi-cancer detection: the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (CCGA) study
Proffered Paper (Oral Presentation): Saturday, October 20, 2018: 9:15 – 9:27 CEST, ICM – Room 14b

About the First CCGA Sub-Study

In this pre-planned sub-study of CCGA, three prototype genome sequencing assays were evaluated as potential methods for a blood-based test for early cancer detection. Blood samples from 2,800 participants (1,628 participants with newly diagnosed cancer who had not yet received treatment and 1,172 participants without a cancer diagnosis) were sequenced with all three prototype assays. Twenty different cancer types across all stages were included in the sub-study. Blood samples from the 2,800 participants were separated into a training set (1,785 participants) and an independent test set (1,010 participants) for verification of the initial results.

The prototype sequencing assays included:

Targeted sequencing of paired cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and white blood cells to detect somatic mutations, such as single nucleotide variants and small insertions and/or deletions;
Whole-genome sequencing of paired cfDNA and white blood cells to detect somatic copy number changes; and
Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of cfDNA to detect abnormal cfDNA methylation patterns.
About CCGA

CCGA is a prospective, observational, longitudinal study designed to characterize the landscape of cell-free nucleic acid (cfNA) profiles in people with and without cancer. The planned enrollment for the study is more than 15,000 participants across 142 sites in the United States and Canada. Approximately 70 percent of participants will have cancer at the time of enrollment (newly diagnosed, have not yet received treatment) and 30 percent will not have a known cancer diagnosis. Planned follow-up for all participants is at least five years to collect clinical outcomes.