SEATTLE, Oct. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SEngine Precision Medicine, a precision oncology company revolutionizing cancer diagnostics and drug discovery by pre-testing drugs on patient-derived tumor organoids, announced today that the PARIS® Test was utilized in a study to identify novel drug combinations to overcome resistance to PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer.
PARP inhibitors are targeted drugs that have become the standard of care in the treatment of nearly half of ovarian cancers. However, many patients’ tumors develop resistance to these drugs leaving few available choices. In this study, researchers used a combination of high throughput siRNA screening and drug testing assays using patient derived tumor cells to identify clinically relevant drug combinations for patients whose tumors were resistant to PARP inhibitors. The results demonstrated that small molecule inhibitors to BET proteins and the SRC kinase could be used to overcome PARP inhibitor resistance. Key to the validation of the initial functional genomic results was the use of SEngine’s assay, the PARIS® Test, and SEngine’s proprietary database of drug responses across a large reference set of tumor organoids. Testing these drug combinations in actual patient tumor organoids will provide important evidence to support future clinical trials. Researchers also identified several potentially antagonistic drug combinations to be avoided in clinic.
“This project was initiated when the daughter of an ovarian cancer patient reached out to us, hoping that the PARIS® Test could help her Mom,” said Carla Grandori, MD, PhD, co-founder and CEO of SEngine Precision Medicine. “At the time a small grant from Cure First, a non-profit we started, enabled us to start a collaboration with Drs. Swisher and Goff at the University of Washington, who contributed their experience as surgeons and oncologists in ovarian cancer. While we could not help this first patient, this study nominates a novel drug combination for PARP inhibitor resistant ovarian cancer, which could be tested in clinical trials. The PARIS® Test, which measures drug response in patient-derived organoids, provides crucial information to help select patients for the right set of drugs.”
The study “BET, SRC, and BCL2 family inhibitors are synergistic drug combinations with PARP inhibitors in ovarian cancer” was published in EBioMedicine and involved researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington, and Clovis Oncology.
About the PARIS® Test
The PARIS® Test is based on the capability to propagate patient-specific cancer cells as organoids outside the body and is applicable to all solid tumors including colon, breast, lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancer. Organoids are cancer-derived cells grown in 3D outside the body, which maintain the functionality of the original tumor as well as its genomic characteristics. For cancers where a treatment path is not clear, such as many metastatic and recurrent cancers, the PARIS® Test provides crucial information to the treating physicians to match the right drug to the right patient.
About SEngine Precision Medicine
SEngine Precision Medicine Inc. is a precision oncology company revolutionizing cancer diagnostics and therapies by pre-testing drugs on patient-derived organoids grown ex-vivo utilizing patient specific tumor cells. As a spin-out from the world-renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, SEngine is leveraging over two decades of R&D in diagnostics and drug discovery. The Company is commercializing the PARIS® Test, a next generation diagnostic test that predicts drug responses integrating knowledge of cancer genomics with organoids, robotics, and AI-driven computational tools. SEngine’s CLIA certified PARIS® Test generates predictive drug sensitivity reports for patients with solid tumors. SEngine is also pursuing drug discovery via strategic collaborations with biopharmaceutical / pharma companies leveraging its precision oncology platform.
Discover more at SengineMedicine.com and follow the latest news from SEngine on Twitter at @SEngineMedicine and on LinkedIn.
Contact:
Stephanie Carrington
stephanie.carrington@westwicke.com
646-277-1282