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Gene Test May Help Predict NSCLC Recurrence Risk
Developing
In Short: The RiskReveal assay, developed by RazorGenomics, uses polymerase chain reaction to categorize patients as low, intermediate, or high risk for recurrence based on the expression of 11 cancer genes and three reference genes in resected tumor tissue.
The AIM-HIGH trial, a multicenter study, randomly assigned 236 patients identified as high risk by the 14-gene RiskReveal assay to either adjuvant treatment or observation after resection, according to new data from Medscape.
The RiskReveal assay, developed by RazorGenomics, uses polymerase chain reaction to categorize patients as low, intermediate, or high risk for recurrence based on the expression of 11 cancer genes and three reference genes in resected tumor tissue.
Among 194 patients with stage IA-IIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) deemed high risk for recurrence by the assay, 2-year disease-free survival was 96% in those assigned to adjuvant chemotherapy compared to 79% in those assigned to observation alone.
The AIM-HIGH trial's interim analysis showed that patients randomly assigned to adjuvant chemotherapy had a 78% reduction in the risk for recurrence or death compared to the control group. Adjuvant treatment included four cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy plus or minus immunotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) at the investigator’s discretion.
The trial's findings suggest that the RiskReveal assay could help clinicians make more informed decisions about adjuvant therapy, potentially improving outcomes for patients with early-stage NSCLC.
What this adds
The study adds to the ongoing search for biomarkers that can predict recurrence risk and guide treatment decisions in NSCLC patients.
What's still developing
- Currently, most patients with early-stage NSCLC don’t get additional treatment after surgery, but cancer comes back in up to half.
- The problem has led to a search for ways to identify patients who will benefit from adjuvant treatment, but tumor size and other standard markers haven’t worked out in clinical trials.