Data from more than 30 clinical has reinforce comprehensive tumor profiling as a “game changer” for oncologists, enabling them to personalize cancer treatments more precisely than ever before. The studies, conducted by Caris Life Sciences in cooperation with academic and clinical institutions, focused on treatment-resistant, rare or aggressive cancers where patients have limited treatment options.

The comprehensive tumor profiling service used in the studies measures a broad range of cancer "biomarkers" (proteins, genes or other molecules that affect how cancer cells grow, multiply and respond to therapies) and interprets the results to identify treatments most likely to be of benefit and help eliminate those that are not likely to benefit the patient. The results allow oncologists to better determine appropriate treatments for each patient, based on the individual makeup of their cancer rather than the site of the tumor.

Data from earlier studies show that comprehensive tumor profiling consistently identifies biomarkers linked to specific treatments in over 90% of patients, and that clinicians change their intended treatment decision based on profiling results in over 80% of cases. Across a range of cancer types, tumor profiling-guided treatment has been shown to benefit patients and improve outcomes when compared to unguided treatment. The data demonstrate that for many solid tumor cancer patients who have run out of options, comprehensive tumor profiling consistently offers oncologists actionable insights to help choose a patient's next treatment and can improve patient outcomes.

A preliminary report from the Caris Registry demonstrated significantly longer post-profiling survival in patients with ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who were given treatments which their tumor profile showed were likely to benefit them against patients who were treated with drugs which profiling suggested would be less effective. Data revealed that patients whose treatment was guided by tumor profiling had a 46% lower risk of death (Hazard Ratio = 0.54, p= 0.0018).

Another ovarian cancer study showed that tumor profiling can help clinicians find new options to offer these hard-to-treat patients. Profiling identified patients whose tumors were likely to be highly resistant to standard treatments and indicated additional options that otherwise might not be considered.

Triple negative breast cancer is difficult to treat in part because it tends to progress rapidly and there are few effective treatment options. However, new data indicate that comprehensive tumor profiling can be used to identify specific groups of patients who over-express biomarkers such as PD-L1, indicating that they could be considered for studies evaluating whether they can benefit from experimental immunotherapies. Caris Life Sciences is one of the first companies to offer PD-1 and PD-L1 tests in an ISO certified laboratory.

A large international study of more than 14,000 gastrointestinal cancer patients showed that tumor profiling identified differences in the type and frequency of tumor biomarkers, which may be used by clinicians to guide the use of appropriate therapies for individual patients.