SAN FRANCISCO, March 26, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CollabRx, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLRX), a data analytics company focused on informing clinical decision making in molecular medicine, today announced the formation of a Pan Cancer (biomarker-focused) molecular oncology editorial board to be led by Razelle Kurzrock, M.D., who will serve as Chief Editor.
Dr. Kurzrock is Director of the Center for Personalized Therapy at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Vice Chief of the Hematology-Oncology Division in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Senior Deputy Center Director, Clinical Science, for UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. Previously, Dr. Kurzrock developed one of the largest Phase 1 clinical trials programs in the nation at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. A central theme of that program was a personalized medicine strategy that utilized advanced molecular technologies to match patients with targeted cancer treatments that optimized chances for response.
Dr. Kurzrock leads a distinguished group of physicians from UC San Diego, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and other institutions both in the US and abroad. Background about the complete editorial board can be found on the company's website (http://www.collabrx.com/expert-affiliations/cancer-specific-editorial-boards/pan-cancer/).
The newly formed Pan Cancer board is the most recent addition among CollabRx's existing editorial boards, which identify clinically actionable biomarkers in the context of individual cancer types such as lung cancer or melanoma. The Pan Cancer editorial board is differentiated in that it will apply a broad molecular oncology perspective in the identification of biomarkers that are clinically actionable in any cancer type. Both types of editorial boards link biomarkers to therapy considerations including drugs and clinical trials. This complementary approach supports the emerging view in personalized oncology that cancers are defined not just by their tissue of origin (e.g., lung cancer), but also by the molecular aberrations they harbor (e.g., EGFR mutations) that can be targeted by specific drugs or combinations of drugs (e.g., EGFR inhibitors).
"It is with great pleasure and anticipation that I assume my new role as Chief Editor of the Pan Cancer editorial board," said Dr. Kurzrock. "I look forward to working with my board and CollabRx staff to provide our physician colleagues with a high-level understanding of how tumor genetics are being leveraged in therapy development and to develop a best-in-class online educational resource for understanding how to use tumor genetic profiles to inform treatment planning for cancer patients."
The Pan Cancer board's initial activities will focus on the development of a Web-based application that will associate specific biomarkers with expert-vetted and clinically relevant information on drugs and clinical trials. The application functionality will be extended in stages and at launch will address sequencing-based biomarkers such as gene mutations, insertions/deletions, fusions and other aberrations. CollabRx will make a version of this application freely available online for physicians and researchers to learn about clinically actionable biomarkers in any cancer type. Subsequently, pathologists and oncologists will be able to use the application at the point of care to annotate their own data generated on any next-generation sequencing platform or sequencing-based test results obtained from any laboratory.
"The formation of a Pan Cancer editorial board illustrates our company's strategy of developing products and services for pathologists and laboratories, and it represents a significant step forward in our commitment to provide a best-in-class, expert-vetted interpretation to next-generation clinical cancer sequencing panels," said Thomas Mika, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer of CollabRx. "We are honored that Dr. Kurzrock and her board members are joining our large and growing expert advisory network and are working with us to assist physicians in matching patients to targeted agents based on actionable genetic aberrations."
About CollabRx
CollabRx, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLRX) is a recognized leader in cloud-based expert systems to inform health care decision-making. CollabRx uses information technology to aggregate and contextualize the world's knowledge on genomics-based medicine with specific insights from the nation's top cancer experts starting with the area of greatest need: advanced cancers in patients who have effectively exhausted the standard of care. More information may be obtained at http://www.collabrx.com.
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