REVEAL GENOMICS and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Team Up to Research Breast Cancer

REVEAL GENOMICS, a Barcelona-based biotechnology start-up, announced on April 28 that it will partner with the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to research early-stage HER2+ breast cancer. The two will use REVEAL’s HER2DX genomic testing to analyze the findings of three major clinical trials as the basis for their research in developing HER2+ treatment strategies. 

Related Article: Recent Advances in Breast Cancer Treatments: An Overview

An Effort To Understand HER2+ Breast Cancer

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a protein in breast tissue but does not necessarily indicate breast cancer. If too much HER2 is present in the breast tissue, there is a possibility that cancer could develop. 

About 20% of breast cancer diagnoses are HER2+. Like most cancers, early detection is crucial to potential success. If HER2+ can be detected early, REVEAL hopes to leverage its HER2DX technology to predict better outcomes for patients. 

Predicting Outcomes With an Inventive Instrument: HER2DX

REVEAL GENOMICS launched its genomic test, HER2DX, in Spain in January. REVEAL designed HER2DX to predict survival outcomes and the likelihood that recently diagnosed patients will achieve pathological complete response (pCR) in early detected cases of HER2+. 

HER2DX measures the expression of 27 genes from breast cancer tissues to evaluate various factors like immune filtration, luminal differentiation, tumor cell proliferation, and HER2 amplicon expression. 

Alongside Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, REVEAL will analyze three major clinical trials using HER2DX genomic tests to assess the clinical utility of the technology. 

CEO and co-founder of REVEAL GENOMICS, Dr. Patricia Villagrasa-Gonzalez, said, “We are thrilled to initiate this research initiative with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the most prestigious oncology centers globally.” 

The Three Clinical Trials

The three clinical trials that formed the structure of REVEAL and Dana-Farber’s collaboration are the APT clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015, the ATEMPT clinical trial, published in 2021 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and the DAPHNe clinical trial, presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Meeting in 2021. 

All three clinical trials studied the effects of assorted and combination therapy to treat HER2+ breast cancer. The APT clinical trial studied the effects of trastuzumab and paclitaxel in combination. The ATEMPT clinical trial evaluated the effects of trastuzumab compared to the effects of paclitaxel. The DAPHNe study demonstrated that a de-escalation of chemotherapy is possible in patients treated with trastuzumab, paclitaxel, or pertuzumab.

With all of this data available, REVEAL GENOMICS and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will have access to tumor samples from over 500 patients to test with HER2DX. REVEAL hopes that after analysis of the studies and the tumor samples from the studies it will provide more fundamental support for the HER2DX technology to commercialize in further markets outside of Spain.

Author

Reed Slater