Event to feature renowned lung cancer experts Dr. David Gandara and Dr. Johannes Kratz
DetermaRx™ the first and only predictive test for early stage lung cancer continues to see commercial success following launch in January 2020
IRVINE, Calif., July 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oncocyte Corporation (NYSE American: OCX), a molecular diagnostics company with a mission to provide actionable answers at critical decision points across the cancer care continuum, today announced that it will host a webinar showcasing new data and real world usage of DetermaRx™, the company’s treatment stratification test that identifies patients with early-stage lung cancer at high risk for recurrence post-surgical resection who may benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. DetermaRx is the only predictive molecular test for the management of early-stage lung cancer. The webinar will be held on Thursday, July 30th at 11:30am PDT and is open to both clinicians and investors.
This test was launched in January 2020 and has received Medicare coverage. The evidence supporting the clinical utility of DetermaRx in impacting patient outcomes in lung cancer resulted in the creation of a new class of predictive tests for Medicare coverage – DetermaRx is the first and only test in that category. More than 40 hospitals across the United States have adopted the test despite the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event will feature esteemed medical oncologist Dr. David Gandara, Director, Thoracic Oncology Program and Senior Advisor to Director, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Dr. Johannes Kratz, Director of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Thoracic Surgery and Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). They will be showcasing expanded prospective data demonstrating clinical utility in identifying high-risk patients at risk of recurrence, and significant impact on disease-free survival from adjuvant chemotherapy guided by DetermaRx results. Data from real world usage of the test now available via 40 academic and community hospitals across the country will also be presented.
Dr. Gandara is a world-renowned medical oncologist and recognized thought leader in lung cancer molecular diagnostics, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications including influential papers in NEJM, JAMA and Nature. His research interests focus on developmental therapeutics of new anti-cancer agents as well as preclinical modeling and clinical research in lung cancer. He is the principal investigator on an Early Therapeutics award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he leads an interdisciplinary team of clinical oncologists, pharmacologists, molecular biologists and statisticians in developing new anti-cancer agents in a variety of novel drug classes. He also leads a multispecialty team in the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), an NCI-funded national clinical research organization, in studies related to improving therapies for lung cancer and developing predictive biomarkers of therapeutic efficacy. Dr. Gandara received his M.D. from the University of Texas at Galveston and his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Kratz played a pivotal role in the development of DetermaRx during his time working with David M. Jablons, M.D. and Michael Mann, M.D. as a research fellow in the Thoracic Oncology Lab at UCSF. As Assistant Professor of Surgery and a Principal Investigator at UCSF, Dr. Kratz researches the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage lung cancer, and his work has been published in leading medical journals including the Lancet, JAMA, and the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Dr. Kratz has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Partners Healthcare Resident/Fellow as Teacher Award, Willard M. Daggett Award, Edward Churchill Surgical Research Fellowship, Wyeth Scholarship of the American College of Surgeons, John E. Thayer Scholarship Award, Howard Hughes Medical Fellows Program Continued Support Award, Howard Hughes Medical Student Research Fellowship, and designation as a Soma Weiss Scholar. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School and holds a Masters in Philosophy from Stanford.
Webinar Information
Date and Time: Thursday, July 30th 11:30am-12:30pm PDT
Register in advance:
https://oncocyte.zoom.us/webinar/register/7015948511568/WN_KKKgb05ATHSuIF2CptyTlg
About Oncocyte Corporation
Oncocyte is a molecular diagnostics company whose mission is to provide actionable answers at critical decision points across the cancer care continuum, with the goal of improving patient outcomes by accelerating and optimizing diagnosis and treatment. The Company recently launched DetermaRx™, a treatment stratification test that enables the identification of early-stage lung cancer patients at high risk for recurrence post-resection, allowing them to be treated when their cancer may be more responsive to adjuvant chemotherapy. Oncocyte is also developing DetermaIO™, a gene expression test that identifies patients more likely to respond to checkpoint immunotherapies.
DetermaRx and DetermaIO are trademarks of Oncocyte Corporation.
Oncocyte Forward Looking Statements
Oncocyte cautions you that this press release contains forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates,” “may,” and similar expressions) are forward-looking statements. These statements include those pertaining to the commercial launch of DetermaRx, development of DetermaIO, unexpected expenditures or assumed liabilities or other unanticipated difficulties resulting from acquisitions, implementation and results of research, development, clinical trials and studies, commercialization plans, future financial and/or operating results, and future opportunities for Oncocyte, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the potential impact of COVID-19 on our financial and operational results, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential diagnostic tests or products, uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory approvals, the capacity of our third-party supplied blood sample analytic system to provide consistent and precise analytic results on a commercial scale, potential interruptions to our supply chain, the need and ability to obtain future capital, maintenance of intellectual property rights, and the need to obtain third party reimbursement for patients’ use of any diagnostic tests we commercialize, and risks inherent in acquisitions such as failure to realize anticipated benefits, unexpected expenditures or assumed liabilities, unanticipated difficulties in conforming business practices including accounting policies, procedures and internal controls, greater than estimated allocations of resources to develop and commercialize technologies, or failure to maintain any laboratory accreditation or certification. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and accordingly such statements should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of Oncocyte, particularly those mentioned in the “Risk Factors” and other cautionary statements found in Oncocyte’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are available from the SEC’s website. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Oncocyte undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.
Investor Contact
Bob Yedid
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
646-597-6989
bob@lifesciadvisors.com
Media Contact
Cait Williamson, Ph.D.
LifeSci Communications, LLC
656-751-4366
cait@lifescicomms.com