GPS Cancer will allow physicians to identify personalized treatments
for children with rare, refractory or recurrent cancers for whom
conventional approaches have proven unsuccessful
Research partnership will provide new hope for an estimated 15,780
children between the ages of birth and 19 years of age who are diagnosed
with cancer each year1
CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
In an effort to accelerate and improve the course of pediatric cancer
care, NantHealth,
Inc., (Nasdaq:NH) today announced a research agreement with Children’s
Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). CHOC, through its Hyundai Cancer
Institute, will utilize GPS
Cancer – the leading molecular test for personalized medicine, to
generate, analyze, and annotate the molecular profile characteristics of
children, adolescents and young adults with rare, recurrent, or
refractory tumors. NantHealth is a leading next-generation,
evidence-based, personalized health care company; CHOC is one of the
nation’s premier children’s hospitals and a founding member of the
Pediatric Consortium of Cancer
MoonShot 2020.
“Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among
children in the United States, so the time is now to develop treatment
options to combat this disease, specifically in pediatric patients2,”
said Leonard S. Sender, MD, Co-Director of the Chan Soon-Shiong
Institute of Molecular Medicine. “Each year, cancer is diagnosed in
175,000 children under the age of 14 worldwide and survival rates vary
depending on the type of cancer3. Through the use of GPS
Cancer, we have the opportunity to identify treatments for these
patients for whom conventional treatment options have been unsuccessful.
The test’s unique application of quantitative proteomics allows our
researchers and physicians to be significantly more informed about the
molecular characterization of cancers in patients and for the first
time, enables personalized treatment options for pediatric cancer
patients. This research partnership with NantHealth is another step
towards transforming pediatric oncology.”
GPS Cancer, available through NantHealth, is a unique, comprehensive
test integrating whole genome (DNA) sequencing, whole transcriptome
(RNA) sequencing, and quantitative proteomics to provide oncologists
with a comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer to inform
personalized treatment strategies and identify therapies that may have
clinical benefit for the patient. Throughout the partnership, CHOC’s
participant samples and data will be collected under the hospital’s
Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure that all research will be
conducted in accordance with all federal, institutional, and ethical
guidelines. From there, NantHealth will conduct GPS Cancer testing in
the CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratories and will deliver results
to CHOC within about three weeks from receipt of tissue. The
collaboration will allow both NantHealth and CHOC to carry out epitope
discovery to identify factors that inform actionable diagnostic and
therapeutic targets and prognostic indicators. NantHealth will enable
the Hyundai Cancer Genomics Center at CHOC to house and manage its
genomic research data in a cloud-based storage setting.
“Often times, pediatric cancer care is overlooked when it comes to
innovation in diagnostics and treatment, which is something we must
correct. As the industry continues to put a strong emphasis on
personalized healthcare, it is essential to consider how we can apply
the best and most ground-breaking treatment options that will fit the
needs of children who are impacted by the disease,” stated Patrick
Soon-Shiong, MD, founder and CEO of NantHealth and founder of the Cancer
MoonShot 2020 program. “Through this partnership with the Children’s
Hospital of Orange County, we now have the ability to investigate the
molecular profiling of pediatric cancer patients in order to understand
the cause of rare cancers, which will then help us develop effective
treatment options. With the unique needs of pediatric oncology, we are
confident that GPS Cancer will enable the hospital to accelerate its
research efforts to discover how pediatric and young adolescent cancer
patients can be treated in a way that is unique to each patient.”
Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This
press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, among
others, statements regarding the capabilities and anticipated utility of
our GPS Cancer, including predicting patient response and resistance to
therapeutics, enabling diagnoses by physicians and accelerating efforts
to bring novel combinations of therapeutic agents to cancer patients, as
well as our contribution to the Cancer 2020 initiative. Forward-looking
statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from currently anticipated
results. Factors that may cause future results to differ materially from
management’s current expectations include, among other things, that GPS
Cancer may not perform as anticipated, that sufficient physicians may
not adopt GPS Cancer to assist their diagnoses or that healthcare payers
may not provide reimbursement for GPS Cancer as expected. Our business
is subject to numerous additional risks and uncertainties, including,
among others, risks relating to market acceptance of our products; our
ability to successfully launch new products and applications;
competition; our sales, marketing and distribution capabilities; our
planned sales, marketing, and research and development activities;
unanticipated increases in costs or expenses; and risks associated with
international operations. Information on these and additional risks,
uncertainties, and other information affecting our business and
operating results can be found in our existing and future filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date hereof. We disclaim any obligation to update
these forward-looking statements except as may be required by law.
About NantHealth
NantHealth, Inc., a member of the NantWorks
ecosystem of companies, is a next-generation, evidence-based,
personalized healthcare company enabling improved patient outcomes and
more effective treatment decisions for critical illnesses. NantHealth’s
unique systems-based approach to personalized healthcare applies novel
diagnostics tailored to the specific molecular profiles of patient
tissues and integrates this molecular data in a clinical setting with
large-scale, real-time biometric signal and phenotypic data to track
patient outcomes and deliver precision medicine. For nearly a decade,
NantHealth has developed an adaptive learning system, CLINICS, which
includes its unique software, middleware and hardware systems
infrastructure that collects, indexes, analyzes and interprets billions
of molecular, clinical, operational and financial data points derived
from novel and traditional sources, continuously improves
decision-making and further optimizes our clinical pathways and decision
algorithms over time. For more information please visit www.nanthealth.com
and follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @DrPatSoonShiong.
About GPS Cancer™
GPS Cancer™ is a unique, molecular scan
available through NantHealth. GPS Cancer integrates whole genome (DNA)
sequencing, whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing, and quantitative
proteomics through mass spectrometry, providing oncologists with a
comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer and an assessment
of protein pathway function to inform personalized treatment strategies.
GPS Cancer scanning is conducted in CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited
laboratories, and is a key enabler for Cancer MoonShot 2020, the world’s
most comprehensive cancer collaborative initiative seeking to accelerate
the potential of combination immunotherapy as the next generation
standard of care in cancer patients. For more information, visit www.gpscancer.com
and www.cancermoonshot2020.org.
About Children’s Hospital of Orange County
Named one of the
best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report (2016-2017) and a
2015 Leapfrog Top Hospital for the highest quality of care, Children’s
Hospital of Orange County (CHOC Children's) is exclusively committed to
the health and well-being of children through clinical expertise,
advocacy, outreach, education and research that brings advanced
treatment to pediatric patients. Affiliated with the University of
California, Irvine, CHOC’s regional health care network includes two
state-of-the-art hospitals in Orange and Mission Viejo, many primary and
specialty care clinics, a pediatric residency program, and four clinical
centers of excellence - the CHOC Children’s Heart, Neuroscience,
Orthopaedic and Hyundai Cancer Institutes.
1 http://www.acco.org/us-childhood-cancer-statistics/
2
http://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet
3
https://www.stjude.org/treatment/pediatric-oncology/childhood-cancer-facts.html
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160921005766/en/
NantWorks
Jen Hodson, 562-397-3639
jhodson@nantworks.com
Source: NantHealth, Inc.