WIN Consortium Applies Transcriptomics to Bolster Patient Matching in Precision Oncology Study

Posted: Wednesday, June 06, 2018

CHICAGO (GenomeWeb) – The combination of DNA and RNA analysis allowed more cancer patients to be matched to precision medicine options than would have been possible based on DNA analysis only, a study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting showed.

Although the WINTHER study, conducted by the WIN Consortium, did not meet a prespecified clinical benefit endpoint, a blinded, post-hoc analysis showed that when patients received treatments they were most likely to benefit from, as determined by high matching scores, they lived significantly longer compared to those who did not get the top-matched therapies. The WINTHER investigators said the data demonstrate the importance of integrating transcriptomics into precision oncology trials alongside DNA analysis.

In the WINTHER study, conducted by the WIN Consortium, 35 percent of 303 consented advanced cancer patients matched to a treatment. First, patients were tested for targetable alterations in cancer genes using Foundation Medicine's FoundationOne test. Those who weren’t matched to targetable drugs based on detected genetic alterations had another shot at getting matched to a treatment based on the differences in gene expression in the tumor and normal samples (assessed by microarrays). Without the RNA-based algorithm, the match-rate would have been 23 percent.