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Caris Life Sciences and National Cancer Center Japan Announce Exclusive Collaboration to Launch The SCRUM-Japan MONSTAR-SCREEN-2 Trial

 

Caris Life Sciences®, a leading innovator in molecular science and artificial intelligence focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine, announced today they have entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement with the National Cancer Center Japan (NCC) to provide Caris’ comprehensive molecular profiling in MONSTAR-SCREEN-2 of SCRUM-Japan, the largest cancer genomic screening consortium in Japan.

Under this agreement, patients will gain access to Caris Molecular Intelligence®, a proprietary, comprehensive tumor profiling approach that assesses all 22,000 genes in both DNA and RNA, and proteins – unique to an individual’s cancer – to reveal a molecular blueprint in order to guide more precise and individualized treatment decisions. Additionally, Caris will provide access to its artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictors MI GPSai™ (Genomic Profiling Similarity) score and MI FOLFOXai™.  GPSai analyzes the patient’s tumor at the molecular level using both whole exome and whole transcriptome data to match the tumor’s molecular signature across 21 cancer types from the Caris database, to determine where the signature has been seen before. GPSai predicted the tumor type in the labeled data set with an accuracy of over 94% on 93% of cases, and with 97% accuracy when the top 2 predictions are considered. FOLFOXai is Caris’ AI-based predictor intended to gauge a metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patient’s likelihood of benefit from first-line treatment FOLFOX followed by FOLFIRI, versus FOLFIRI followed by FOLFOX, both standard of care options. In December 2020, Caris published data in Clinical Cancer Research demonstrating 71% difference in overall survival for mCRC patients using its FOLFOXai predictor.

Launched in 2015, SCRUM-Japan is one of the world’s largest cancer initiatives, involving some 260 Japanese clinical facilities and 17 pharmaceutical companies. More than 17,000 patients are enrolled, with 2,000 more signed up annually. The multinational genomic screening program is designed to accelerate the development of innovative biomarker-driven precision medicine cancer therapies. By utilizing Caris’ next generation sequencing and AI-based predictors, participants will be matched to, and able to enroll in, targeted therapy clinical trials based on the data received from Caris’ molecular profile.

“Caris Life Sciences provides one of the most comprehensive tumor profiling offerings in the world, and we are proud to work with them as we prepare to launch the fourth phase of our program,” said Takayuki Yoshino, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Clinical Research Coordination Division & Director of Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal Oncology at the National Cancer Center Hospital East. “This collaboration brings together the expertise, innovation and reach of Caris in the field of molecular profiling to our patients, and will allow treating physicians to make therapy-based decisions for their patients that ultimately help deliver better outcomes.”

“It is paramount that all patients and healthcare providers worldwide have access to precision medicine testing in order to guide treatment decisions and better inform patient care,” said W. Michael Korn, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Caris Life Sciences. “Caris is pleased to partner with NCC to provide them with our industry-leading technology and suite of product offerings that will allow them to fully realize the potential of precision medicine in diagnostics, and set the stage for developing unique treatment approaches for patients as part of the groundbreaking MONSTAR-SCREEN-2 study.”