Inventors at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have created a tool for developing new targeted therapies or enhancing patient stratification in transcriptomic multi-arm trials. This tool, named SELECT, uses a computational, precision-oncology framework that uses the tumor’s whole transcriptome to identify synthetic lethal and synthetic rescue genetic interactions. The use of tumor transcriptomics for precision oncology has already made significant advances, mainly by identifying cancer driver genes or actionable mutations for treatment with targeted therapies. However, it currently does not cover the broader genetic interactions that could reveal additional biologically testable biomarkers for therapy response prediction and inform the selection of more effective drugs for targeted treatments. NCI has developed SELECT to bridge this gap.

The genetic interactions provided by SELECT have provided actional information predicting therapeutic response in 28 of 35 published targeted and immunotherapy trials from 10 different cancer types. It was also predictive of patients’ response in 80% of the clinical trials.

The commercial applications for this technology include patient stratification in clinical trials, identifying new actionable drug targets and treatments, and analysis of genetic interactions that can provide actionable information for selecting effective treatment options for cancer patients.

The competitive advantages include:

• Predictive accuracy of patients’ response in many treatment options, including chemotherapy, targeted drugs and immunotherapy.
• Predictive accuracy of patients’ response across cancer types.
• Enhancing patient stratification for clinical trials and improved therapeutic strategies.
• Increasing the number of patients that could benefit from precision-based treatments.

NCI is seeking a licensee or co-development partner for this opportunity. If interested, you can find more information here.