Date:- 19 April, 2019
Tag:- IMMUNOSCORE® in Colon Cancer
HalioDx SAS, an immuno-oncology company pioneering the immunological diagnosis of cancers, today announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Genecast for Immunoscore® commercialization in China. Oncologists and patients in China will have access to Immunoscore®, a unique diagnostic assay that predicts the risk of recurrence of patients with early stage colon cancer.
Immunoscore® is an assay which combines tissue diagnostic and advanced image analysis technologies enabling extraction of spatially-organized tissue molecular information to quantify lymphocytes which infiltrate both the core of the tumor and its invasive margin. The assay is quantitative and guides oncologists to decide on critical therapeutic options in stages II and stage III colon cancers [1]. It is the very first IVD assay of the HalioDx pipeline, leveraging image analysis technology to enhance clinical utility and standardization.
The clinical value of Immunoscore® has been validated in several studies on early stage colon cancer patients. The results of the SITC International study [1] conducted on more than 2600 patients have been published in The Lancet journal in 2018. The prognostic value has also been validated on 600 stage III colon cancer patients from the FOLFOX arm of the prospective NCCTG N0147 study [2].
“There are more than 500 000 new cases of Colorectal cancers per year in China [3] which represent a significant challenge for health organizations in the country. For half of these patients, treatment decisions are problematic leading to over or under treatments. Thanks to Immunoscore®, relapse risk assessment will be improved for early stage colon cancer patients,” says Vincent Fert CEO of HalioDx. He added “We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Genecast who have a proven record of success in the highly competitive cancer diagnostics market.”
“We are very pleased to partner with HalioDx. HalioDx’s choice to work with Genecast shows its high recognition of our comprehensive strengths and marketing ability in the Chinese market.” Mr. Bo Du, founder and CEO of Genecast, said, “Immunoscore® is a paragon of precision medicine in clinical practice. We highly recognize its values, and we are very pleased to be able to promote it in China so that the Chinese patients can receive better healthcare solutions.”
[1]Pagès F, Mlecnik B, Marliot F et al. International validation of the consensus Immunoscore for the classification of colon cancer: a prognostic and accuracy study. Lancet. 2018; 391 (10135)
[2]Sinicrope F, Shi Q, Hermitte F et al. Immunoscore to provide prognostic information in low- (T1-3N1) and high-risk (T4 or N2) subsets of stage III colon carcinoma patients treated with adjuvant FOLFOX in a phase III trial (NCCTG N0147; Alliance). J Clin Oncol. 2018; 36:4s (suppl; abstr 614)
[3]International Agency for Research on Cancer, Globocan 2018