CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
December 2014—EKF Diagnostics announced it has entered a two-year research collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital to develop PointMan assays that can detect treatable cancer mutations in blood samples. MGH will use PointMan DNA for the detection of genetic variation in circulating tumor cells isolated from a patient’s blood using MGH’s CTC-Chip instrument.
The initial proof of concept data produced by the research team at MGH using PointMan DNA enrichment assays to detect EGFR sensitizing and resistance (T790M), mutations associated with lung cancer, and BRAF V600E associated with melanoma have proved enlightening, the company said in a statement. These experiments involved spiking as few as three to 10 tumor cells harboring the appropriate mutations into white blood cells. PointMan enrichment assays reliably detected both T790M and V600E at a frequency of 10 mutant alleles in a background of 10,000 wild-type alleles. Ongoing pilot studies have suggested an even more robust detection sensitivity of three mutant alleles in a background of 30,000 wild-type alleles.
EKF Diagnostics, +44 (0)29 20 710570