SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - CollabRx, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLRX), a leading provider of clinical decision support solutions in oncology, today announced the publication of a clinical decision support model for oncology as an advance publication in the current online edition of the open-access journal Oncoscience.1 The publication titled "A framework for genomic biomarker actionability and its use in clinical decision making" was co-authored by senior members of CollabRx's scientific team in collaboration with clinical researchers and physicians at the University of California, San Diego, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Vall d'Hebron Institut d'Oncologia, Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
Large-scale genetic testing using next-generation sequencing (NGS) is increasingly being used to inform the care of cancer patients by physicians who wish to consider a targeted therapy approach to treatment planning. Formal clinical treatment guidelines exist for tumor genetic mutations in a relatively small number of genes and cancer types (e.g. BRAF mutations in melanoma). Treatment guidelines do not exist for the vast majority of tumor genomic abnormalities that are being discovered using large-scale NGS panels that evaluate hundreds of genes at a time. Moreover, many physicians lack the ability to prioritize among multiple genetic alterations for clinical actionability. Consequently, physicians and their patients cannot easily determine which genetic alteration among potentially many may be the most clinically relevant and thus could be used to guide treatment planning.
The publication announced today describes an objective evidenced-based framework that relates the biological basis of tumor genetic mutations in a given gene to the clinical rationale for treating a patient with potentially relevant FDA-approved or investigational drugs that are associated with the mutation based on published medical and scientific data. Relevant data span a spectrum of clinical strength of evidence and can enable physicians to categorize the clinical actionability of genetic alterations.
"The framework described in the publication forms the core of CollabRx's Genetic Variant Annotation (GVA) Service™ which can be used to support physician decision-making by associating specific genes, mutations, and cancer types with published evidence linking these mutations with drugs, drug classes, and/or drug combinations," said Smruti Vidwans, Ph.D., CollabRx chief scientist and lead author of the publication. "This information is essential to informing cancer treatment planning at the point of care by leveraging a tumor's unique genetic profile."
"This important actionability framework provides a standard lens through which to view precision oncology by making complex NGS-based cancer panel results more useful to physicians who treat cancer patients," said George Lundberg, M.D., CollabRx editor-in-chief and chief medical officer who was not an author of the publication. "The authors of this publication have thought deeply about the important information needed for physicians to use genetic testing of tumors in the care of cancer patients."
CollabRx representatives will be available to discuss this publication and the GVA Service at the 2014 Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Annual Meeting taking place November 12-15, 2014 in National Harbor, MD.
About CollabRx
CollabRx, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLRX) is a recognized leader in cloud-based expert systems to inform healthcare 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.
About the CollabRx GVA Service
The GVA Service offered by CollabRx is a widely used, highly scalable, and cloud-based electronic decision support system that provides a turn-key analysis of many types of genetic alterations in cancer. The GVA Service accepts genetic data from any source or platform and pairs it with information contained in a knowledge base that includes the clinical impact of specific genetic profiles. The CollabRx knowledge base is supported by a proprietary technology platform and expert system that leverages a large and growing network of over 75 thought-leaders and clinical practitioners in the United States and Europe who work together with CollabRx to develop new tools for clinical decision-making in oncology. The GVA Service is offered to customers in a Software as a Service (SaaS) business model.
CollabRx Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements about CollabRx's anticipated results that involve risks and uncertainties. Some of the information contained in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements as to industry trends and CollabRx's plans, objectives, expectations and strategy for its business, contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. When used, the words "believe," "plan," "intend," "anticipate," "target," "estimate," "expect" and the like, and/or future tense or conditional constructions ("will," "may," "could," "should," etc.), or similar expressions, identify certain of these forward-looking statements. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are detailed in filings made by CollabRx with the Securities and Exchange Commission. CollabRx undertakes no obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
1. Vidwans, S.J. et al. A framework for genomic biomarker actionability and its use in clinical decision making. Oncoscience, 2014 Oct 22. [Epub ahead of print]; http://www.impactjournals.com/oncoscience/files/papers/1/90/90.pdf
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