University of
Saskatchewan's (USask) Advanced Diagnostics Research
Laboratory will use SOPHiA DDM™ Platform to advance
research on ovarian cancer care
BOSTON and ROLLE, Switzerland, March 20,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SOPHiA GENETICS (Nasdaq: SOPH),
a cloud-native software company and a leader in data-driven
medicine, today announced the University
of Saskatchewan (USask) as its first HRD customer in
Canada. USask will implement the
SOPHiA DDM™ Platform for use in its cutting-edge clinical
trial, which aims to substantially improve the quality of life for
ovarian cancer patients through expanded genetic testing. This is
the first clinical trial in Canada
designed to improve ovarian cancer treatment decisions and inspire
guideline changes to increase access to advanced testing.
Ovarian cancer is the most fatal gynecologic cancer; only about
45 percent of patients in Canada
survive more than five years after diagnosis.1 The
current standard for ovarian cancer tumor testing in Canada tests only for the absence or presence
of a BRCA mutation; this identifies only a fraction of
patients with genetic changes in their tumor.2 The
latest trial from USask will use additional genetic diagnostic
tools, and the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform, to inform oncologists on
a wider spread of genes and potential mutations, which can be
indicative of whether a patient may respond better to a targeted
therapy rather than chemotherapy.
"Using genetic testing to uncover tumor mutations and support
treatment planning for cancer patients is a perfect example of
precision medicine in practice. It's exactly what we at SOPHiA
GENETICS are working so hard to make available to clinician
researchers around the world," said John
Carey, Managing Director, NORAM, SOPHiA GENETICS. "The
research being led by the USask Advanced Diagnostics Research
Laboratory (ADRL) team to advance genomic analysis of patient
tumors has the potential to drastically improve the lives of
thousands throughout Canada, and
we are honored our SOPHiA DDM™ Platform is a pivotal part of that
research."
The SOPHiA DDM™ Comprehensive Profiling Solution coupled
with SOPHiA GENETICS' proprietary deep learning algorithm,
GIInger™, will provide USask with a widespread look at potential
mutations for each patient. This testing will provide the
researchers with detailed genomic information, including predicted
treatment response, in an expedited timeframe using SOPHiA
GENETICS' advanced AI and proprietary technology to analyze and
interpret raw NGS data and provide reliable and fast results.
USask's clinical trial aims to leverage these findings to enable
providers to create a personalized treatment plan with the goal of
patients no longer undergoing treatments that may not help control
their cancer and that worsen their quality of life.
"Our clinical trial has the potential to create a paradigm shift
for ovarian cancer care across Canada, helping to base treatment decisions in
data to provide the most favorable patient outcomes," said
Laura Hopkins, M.D., Saskatchewan
Cancer Agency Gynecologic Oncologist and Co-lead of the clinical
trial.
USask molecular pathologist and director of the ADRL John
DeCoteau, M.D., added, "Our hope is that our research will help
create increased access to this type of testing across Canada to provide patients with additional
treatment choices and more personalized care."
HRD is caused by a cell's impaired ability to repair DNA
double-stranded breaks through the homologous recombination repair
(HRR) pathway; it is an important predictor of tumor response to
certain treatment options. HRD is linked with the development of
several cancers3 including advanced ovarian cancer, and
is the most prevalent alteration in ovarian cancer, with
approximately half of all newly diagnosed patients
having HRD-positive tumors.4
For more information on SOPHiA GENETICS,
visit SOPHiAGENETICS.com or connect on X,
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
About SOPHiA GENETICS
SOPHiA GENETICS (Nasdaq: SOPH) is a software company dedicated to
establishing the practice of data-driven medicine as the standard
of care for life sciences research. It is the creator of the SOPHiA
DDM™ Platform, a cloud-native platform capable of analyzing data
and generating insights from complex multimodal data sets and
different diagnostic modalities. The SOPHiA DDM™ Platform and
related solutions, products and services are currently used by a
broad network of hospital, laboratory, and biopharma institutions
globally. For more information, visit SOPHiAGENETICS.COM, or
connect on X, LinkedIn, Facebook,
and Instagram. Where others see data, we see
answers.
SOPHiA GENETICS products are for Research Use Only and not
for use in diagnostic procedures unless specified otherwise. The
information in this press release is about products that may or may
not be available in different countries and, if applicable, may or
may not have received approval or market clearance by a
governmental regulatory body for different indications for use.
Please contact support@sophiagenetics.com to obtain the appropriate
product information for your country of residence.
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Statements:
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statements that constitute forward-looking statements. All
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1
https://cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-types/ovarian/prognosis-and-survival/survival-statistics#:~:text=Net%20survival&text=It%20is%20used%20to%20give,for%20at%20least%205%20years.
2
https://news.usask.ca/media-release-pages/2023/usask-launches-world-first-clinical-trial-to-improve-ovarian-cancer-treatment.php
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10342032/#:~:text=According%20to%20The%20Cancer%20Genome,clinical%20benefits%20of%20PARP%20inhibitors.
4
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923753421048286
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