Personalis Announces Two Abstracts Accepted for Presentation at ASCO 2023

Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL) today announced it will present new clinical data as scientific posters at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 2023, which convenes from June 2-6, 2023, in Chicago, Ill.

Among many applications, clinicians and researchers are increasingly interested in the use of ctDNA to monitor immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy response. Though ICIs can be extremely effective at treating certain forms of cancer, only a subset of patients will respond. Even when there’s an initial response, the development of resistance can lead to relapse.

“Monitoring patient response to ICI therapy using current technologies is often limited in scope and resolution,” explains Christopher Hall, Chief Executive Officer and President at Personalis. “Ultra-sensitive ctDNA detection may allow near-real-time data on tumor therapeutic response and evolution, ultimately with the hope of guiding treatment decisions at critical timepoints.”

Progress in the field has thus far been limited due to the significant technical challenge of detecting the low levels of ctDNA that may exist during and after curative treatment.

At ASCO, Personalis will present data from two retrospective clinical studies that demonstrate a breakthrough in ctDNA detection sensitivity. "We’ve developed NeXT Personal with the express goal of ultra-sensitive detection of ctDNA during and after treatment, as well as enabling personalized care throughout the patient’s journey,” says Hall.

NeXT Personal’s industry-leading sensitivity is recognized by leading experts in the oncology domain—such as Andy Nixon, Ph.D., from Duke Cancer Institute and Klaus Pantel, MD, Ph.D., from the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf—who have begun to adopt this technology. Data from these collaborations will be presented at ASCO, demonstrating the ultra-high sensitivity of NeXT Personal and its potential utility in monitoring tumor response to ICI. Specifically, the studies demonstrate that:

• ctDNA levels during treatment correlate with therapy response, as defined by RECIST v1.1
• ctDNA clearance, as determined by NeXT Personal, is predictive of patient survival in both melanoma and gastric cancer cohorts
• Across both gastric and melanoma cohorts, NeXT Personal detected ctDNA fragments in quantities ranging from >300,000 down to as low as 2.3 PPM; with a median LOD of 1.97 PPM
• Nearly a third of melanoma patients presented with ctDNA levels below 100 parts per million (PPM), which likely would have been missed by other available minimal residual disease (MRD) assays
• NeXT Personal successfully detected the evolution of therapeutically relevant variants during treatment.

Collectively, these posters represent the latest in a growing body of evidence indicating that ultra-sensitive ctDNA detection is needed to bring higher resolution, and more personalized care to patients with cancer, both during treatment and after.