Cancer Genetics and leading pathologist will evaluate and optimize genomic panel for lymphoma

Cancer Genetics, Inc (CGI) and University of Southern California (USC) pathologist Imran Siddiqi, MD, PhD, have entered into a collaboration to identify and evaluate genomic markers for the prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

CGI has developed a proprietary genomic test, MatBA-DLBCL, which offers prognosis of DLBCL based on genomic copy number changes. The company’s collaboration with Siddiqi, assistant professor of clinical pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, involves the further identification and evaluation of unique genomic copy number changes that can serve as additional prognostic markers in DLBCL. Genomic aberrations that significantly correlate with patient prognosis will be further analyzed and added to the panel of genomic aberrations that CGI has previously identified as having prognostic values in DLBCL. Company representatives say the collaboration will enhance the value of the proprietary MatBA-DLBCL assay.

“Patients with aggressive B-cell lymphomas can have heterogeneous presentations, and it is often difficult to predict their responses to standard therapies,” said Siddiqi. “We have an urgent clinical need for assays that allow reproducible molecular sub-classification and prognostic stratification of these diseases. Through this collaboration, we hope to evaluate the clinical utility of their genome-wide panel of aberrations in our cohort of DLBCL patients. In a broader sense, our studies may provide biological insights for this disease in diverse patient populations.”

A number of gains have recently been made in the treatment of B-cell malignancies, including this summer’s FDA approval of Gilead’s Zydelig for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, follicular lymphoma, and small lymphocytic lymphoma. There are currently more than 600 clinical trials in phases II and III investigating drugs for DLBCL and some 1,500 for B-cell malignancies. CGI’s proprietary tests allow biotech and biopharma customers to more efficiently stratify and monitor patients enrolled in these clinical trials. Learn more about MatBA-DLBCL.