SAGA Diagnostics AB, which develops liquid biopsy and genomic testing assays, announced an expanded research collaboration with Charles Swanton, FRCP BSc PhD, Senior Group Leader at the University College London (UCL) Cancer Institute.
Last year, SAGA and UCL inked a research collaboration on a limited number of patients. With the newly signed agreement, SAGA will utilize its proprietary SAGAsafe assays for detection of a panel of mutations in EGFR and other genes and perform analyses on several hundred clinical tissue samples from the Cancer Research UK-funded UCL-sponsored TRACERx and PEACE studies. The TRACERx study focuses on cancer evolution in lung cancer patients and tracking the evolutionary trajectory of the disease from diagnosis through to relapse. The PEACE study accepts post-mortem tissue donation for comprehensive cancer research with the aim to benefit future patients.
The analyses will be run in the SAGA Diagnostics central laboratory in Lund, Sweden.
SAGA says its molecular tools are being used in clinical trials and hospitals for detecting actionable mutations, monitoring treatment response, measuring minimal residual disease, and identifying resistance mechanisms to help direct therapy.
