SOFIVA GENOMICS has been continuously devoted to the research and development of cancer-based precision medicine. In a technological collaboration with the world-renowned SOPHiA GENETICS in 2022, SOFIVA GENOMICS unveiled new homologous recombination deficiency HRD testing capable of providing patients with highly accurate assessments that indicate potential responsiveness to PARP inhibitor therapy.
Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect in its early stages, and it is not until it reaches its advanced stage that patients are often diagnosed. In the past, the main approaches for treating ovarian cancer were surgery and chemotherapy. However, as clinical medicine improved, new precision and targeted treatments emerged, such as PARP inhibitors, which are a new class of targeted agents that block the DNA-repairing mechanism of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, or PARP. Patients with HRD-positive ovarian cancer can take PARP inhibitors to induce the apoptosis of cancer cells. Therefore, verifying the HRD status of tumors can help physicians assess whether their patients are suitable candidates for PARP inhibitor treatment.
In the past, performing BRCA1/2 genetic tests to ascertain DNA mutations could identify around 22% of ovarian cancer patients suitable for PARP inhibitor treatment, while testing multiple homologous recombination repair (HRR) genes detected roughly 31% of candidates (Note 1). By comparison, the HRD testing launched by SOFIVA GENOMICS using SOPHiA GENETICS technology screens 28 HRR gene mutations, including BRCA1/2. The test incorporates the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform to analyze genome integrity using AI and machine-learning-based algorithms, allowing HRD testing to drastically increase the detection rate of ovarian cancer patients suitable for targeted therapy to 50% (Note 1).
The increased robustness and wider scope of application of the HRD testing overcome many limitations of traditional test methods, aiding clinicians in more accurately gauging the eligibility of patients with wild-type BRCA1/2 gene to undergo PARP inhibitor treatment. In 2023, SOFIVA GENOMICS has been commissioned by several medical institutions to carry out HRD evaluations on close to a thousand ovarian cancer patients. Roughly half of the patients were verified to be prime candidates for PARP inhibitor treatment.
"Our collaboration with SOPHiA GENETICS is deeply advantageous for refining and localizing precision medicine in Taiwan. SOPHiA GENETICS provides a framework for localizing HRD testing in Taiwan, allowing us to retain genetic data needed to perfect the robustness and accuracy of HRD testing services and help even more patients identify suitable treatment," said SOFIVA GENOMICS general manager Chia-Cheng Hung.
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Note 1: SOPHiA DDM™ Homologous Recombination Solutions. SOPHiA DDM™ Homologous Recombination Applications - SOPHiA GENETICS
