(Pictured: David Spetzler, President, Caris Life Sciences, photo courtesy of the Caris Molecular Minute Podcast)
With a primary focus on cancer, and an emphasis on compassion in all they do, Caris Life Sciences has built a market-leading portfolio of precision medicine tools that have helped more than half a million cancer patients worldwide.
As the company’s Chairman, Founder and CEO David Dean Halbert says, “We exist to relieve the suffering of as many people as possible.”
Caris’ patient impact, as well as its molecular knowledge of disease and skill at deploying molecular science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), have significantly lifted the field of Oncology from an empiric medicine methodology to a precision medicine approach.
Oncology is now widely recognized as one of the most genomically characterized fields in all of medicine and virtually every clinical trial for cancer includes a biomarker or molecular signature to evaluate drug performance.
Last week at ASCO, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Caris presented a number of research abstracts, many of which were collaborations with members of the Caris Precision Oncology Alliance, a leading cancer research enterprise made up of more than 90 cancer centers, academic institutions, research consortiums and healthcare systems.
Here’s what some of the company’s leaders had to say about the company’s latest work:
Can you provide an overview of Caris’ presence and research at ASCO?
Caris continues to pioneer innovative solutions to revolutionize healthcare and, most importantly, improve patient outcomes. Our strong presence at ASCO 2024 is a testament to our commitment to that mission. Caris and collaborators within the Caris Precision Oncology Alliance™ (POA) had 41 abstracts accepted for presentation at this year’s conference, including two rapid oral abstracts and 39 posters, one of which received a merit award.
The diverse array of findings covering 19 tumor types demonstrate the power of Caris’ comprehensive clinicogenomic database of over 632,000 lifetime clinical cases with over 482,000 with matched molecular data, to enable novel insights into cancer that could profoundly affect a patient’s diagnosis, prognosis, care plan and response to treatment.
We’re proud to collaborate with the 92 POA members, including leading cancer centers, academic institutions, research consortia and healthcare systems across the globe, to advance precision oncology and biomarker-driven research.
– George W. Sledge, Jr., MD, Caris EVP and Chief Medical Officer
Caris recently engaged in a multi-year partnership with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, worth up to $1.4 billion. How will this strategic partnership and others help to accelerate the development of the first-in-class work you are doing in antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) for cancer patients?
Caris is thrilled to join forces with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to bring new therapeutic options to cancer patients. Caris’ clinico-genomic database, built from our comprehensive molecular profiling and tissue biorepository, coupled with our proprietary proteomic capabilities, puts our efforts at the forefront of being able to identify truly novel drug targets.
Caris Discovery, the therapeutic research arm of Caris which leverages Caris’ database, was launched to address the paucity of novel oncology drug targets and is uniquely poised to discover first-in-class ADC targets.
In the last two years, Caris Discovery has signed three discovery partnerships (Xencor (2), Merck KGaA (1)), each with significant potential to make patient impact.
Caris Discovery looks forward to continuing to expand its partnering portfolio.
– Milan Radovich, PhD, Caris SVP and Chief Scientific Officer
Caris’ new liquid biopsy assay, Caris Assure, is supported by AI enabled whole exome and transcriptome technology commercially available for therapy selection with future capability to cover multi-cancer early detection and monitoring for clinical trials. What makes the Caris Assure liquid biopsy assay unique compared to other available assays?
Caris Assure is a breakthrough, single assay that combines comprehensive, highly sophisticated molecular profiling of all 23,000+ genes across DNA and RNA, setting a new blood-based testing standard and revolutionizing management of the cancer care journey.
Caris Assure couples Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing (WTS) of plasma and white blood cells (WBCs) with advanced machine learning on a single platform to enable highly accurate early detection, highly sensitive disease monitoring and precise therapy selection.
The machine learning algorithm at the heart of Caris Assure, Assure Blood-based Cancer Detection AI (ABCDai), was trained using WES/WTS data from >350,000 tumor specimens to identify molecular patterns indicative of cancer in the blood.
Caris Assure is the first multifunctional blood-based assay to offer diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive utility in a single test to increase the accuracy of the insights informing cancer care decisions.
Traditionally, multiple clinical tools have been needed to achieve what Caris Assure can in one assay. In validation studies evaluating early detection, MRD monitoring, and therapy selection in solid tumors, the Caris Assure platform produced the superior sensitivity and specificity required for optimal cancer care across the clinical continuum.
Caris Assure for therapy selection is available for clinical use, with the application for commercial expansion for MCED and MRD coming soon.
– David Spetzler, MS, PhD, MBA, Caris President
