NEW YORK ─ ArcherDx announced on Thursday a collaboration with New York-based biopharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb to use the genomic analysis company's personalized cancer monitoring (PCM) assays for minimal residual disease (MRD) detection in cancer patients treated with immunotherapy.
ArcherDx said the firms will evaluate clinical samples from cancer-patient cohorts to advance MRD detection or ctDNA clearance to potentially inform future therapy selection or optimization, or both.
Financial and other terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
ArcherDx's PCM assays for clinical research provide tumor-informed longitudinal analysis of circulating-tumor DNA (ctDNA) in patient blood, where the quantity of ctDNA is a predictor of disease stage and burden. According to the Boulder, Colorado-based firm, PCM achieves accuracy at low limits of detection by focusing the ctDNA analysis on known patient-specific mutations in tumor tissue.
The goal is to use the assays to expand "precision oncology into early-stage cancers, when the cancer is typically easier to cure compared to late-stage cancers," ArcherDx cofounder and CEO Jason Myers said in a statement. "This collaboration further underscores our intention to facilitate real-time monitoring of ctDNA during and after therapy with personalized, decentralized assays that can be distributed across the globe and could potentially optimize the use of current and future cancer therapies."
In May, ArcherDx announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca to develop assays to detect MRD in patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.
Earlier this month, it filed a document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to go public with plans to raise up to $100 million.