KVAL: Biomarkører som predikerer spredning av tarmkreft

Bowel cancer is a public disease with approx. 4,500 new annual cases in Norway. During the course of the disease, almost half of the patients will experience that the disease spreads (metastasizes) to other organs, and for most the disease will provide a limited quality of life and for some the disease is uncurable. Clinicians at Ahus have developed two different tests to collectively map a mutation in a simple blood test to identify rectal cancer patients who need intensified treatment to reduce the risk of metastasis The test aims to identify likely responders to the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in order to improve the treatment outcome for established metastatic disease in bowel cancer The test is also aiming to identify patients who will gain the most optimal treatment effect. The challenge today is that there are no good diagnostic methods to identify who these patients are. Under the qualification projects, we have conducted a validation of the markers of our proposed test in an independent patient cohort. The validation analyses were unfortunately unable to confirm the clinical utility of the biomarkers, and the diagnostic test will therefore not be developed further.

Tykk-/endetarmskreft er den tredje mest vanlige kreftformen globalt sett og Norge har de høyeste forekomstene i verden. I 2018 rapportert GlobalData at det er et stort behov for å identifisere nye biomarkører for optimal integrering av nåværende og fremtidig behandling for å bedre utfallet for pasienten. De få prognostiske testene på markedet for tarmkreft er dårlig egnet til å identifiserer pasienter med høy risiko for spredning av tarmkreft og vi har ikke avdekket tester for å optimalisere et behandlingsforløp for immunterapi. Vi har under prosjektet gjennomført en validering av en potensiell ny diagnotisk test på nytt klinisk materiale. Denne analysen konkluderte med at de opprinnelige funnene ikke kunne verifiseres. og testen dermed ikke er egnet for videre utvikling.