Biocept’s CNSide Cerebrospinal Fluid Assay Featured in Two Oral Presentations at the 2023 SNO/ASCO CNS Cancer Conference

Biocept, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIOC) (“Biocept” or the “Company”), a leading provider of molecular diagnostic assays, products and services, announces that its CNSide cerebrospinal fluid assay was featured in two oral presentations at the 2023 SNO/ASCO CNS Cancer Conference on Saturday, August 12. The abstracts were presented by Priya U. Kumthekar, MD, a United Counsel for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS)-certified neuro-oncologist at Northwestern University, and David Piccioni, MD, PhD, Director of Neuro-Oncology at University of California, San Diego. The conference, sponsored by the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), was held August 10-12 in San Francisco.

“While patients with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) have limited treatment options, select patients may benefit from targeted therapies,” said Dr. Kumthekar. “Using CNSide in patients with solid tumors and LM to detect HER2 amplification could provide valuable information in treatment decision making.” Dr. Kumthekar is the principal investigator at Northwestern University of Biocept’s ongoing FORESEE clinical trial, which is evaluating the performance of CNSide in monitoring the response of LM to treatment and assessing the impact of CNSide on treatment decisions made by physicians.

“Patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (LMC) have limited survival and early detection by traditional CSF cytology is poor,” said Dr. Piccioni. “From this study, we concluded that using CNSide was superior in detecting LMC, and its ability for molecular profiling on captured CSF tumor cells (CSF-TCs) could improve earlier detection and treatment outcomes.”

A summary of the abstracts is as follows:

• “The HER2 Flip: HER2 Amplification of Tumor Cells in the Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF-TCs) of Patients with Leptomeningeal Metastasis having solid tumors; implications for treating the LM tumor with anti-HER2 therapy.”
  
  Results of this study indicated that HER2 amplification in the CSF can be detected in a substantial fraction of CSF-TCs from patients with LM having breast, upper GI and non-small cell lung cancer, and other solid tumors, and that an increased HER2 positivity in LM may imply HER2 as a driver for developing LM. The results suggest that prospective studies are needed to determine if evaluation of HER2 amplification in the CSF of patients with LM having solid tumors should be routinely considered, as it may offer viable treatment options otherwise not considered.