Brisbane, Australia–XING Genomic Services, a subsidiary of XING Technologies, is pleased to announce that they have received NATA accreditation effective from July 2021 to offer clinical cancer genetic testing using the Pillar Biosciences HRD (homologous recombination deficiency) assay. This test identifies cancer patients that have tumours with impaired DNA repair capability, making them more likely to respond to PARP inhibitors–a class of drugs that suppress the ability of tumours to self-repair and proliferate. This test is clinically validated in breast and ovarian tumours and is being used in a screening test to determine patient eligibility in a phase 2 clinical trial which is testing PARP inhibitor efficacy in a subset of breast and ovarian cancer patients for whom PARP inhibitors are not yet approved.
A major advantage of the Pillar HRD test is it that works well on clinical FFPE tissue samples (formalin-fixed paraffin embedded), which are known to be a challenge for standard DNA recovery. “The team have yet to encounter a clinical sample that has failed testing with the Pillar HRD kit,” said Dr. Paul Mainwaring, Co-Founder & Chairman at XING Technologies. In addition, this test is designed to have a simple, fast workflow to ensure patients receive results in a timely manner. As HRD is identified in an increasing number of patients and cancer types, such as breast, ovarian, prostate and many other cancers, this test is poised to inform decisions about PARP inhibitor therapy for patients and in clinical trials. As Professor Narod from Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, Canada says–“patients with breast cancer must have genetic tests in the window between diagnosis and treatment”*.
XING Genomic Services was accredited at the same time to deliver Pillar’s Solid Tumor Panel (STP) test which identifies therapeutically actionable genetic alterations in non-small cell lung, colorectal, pancreatic, and thyroid cancers, as well as gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST), melanomas and gliomas.
“As barriers currently exist that inhibit the broad adoption of next generation sequencing (NGS), there is a real need to deliver highly sensitive, robust, and rapid NGS results that provide elevated confidence and assurance in testing to tailor care for cancer patients. As a global partner, we are pleased to collaborate with XING Technologies in providing these assays and thrilled of this endorsement,” said Zhaohui Wang, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Pillar Biosciences, a global oncology solutions company.
About XING Genomic Services
At XING Genomic Services, we are committed to expanding treatment possibilities for patients with cancer. Cancer genetic testing is aimed to identify genetic or epigenetic alterations that may be driving the growth of your cancer type. The knowledge of your unique alterations may help your treating doctor implement a precision treatment plan based on the profile of your cancer. Clinically relevant genetic and epigenetic alterations and suggestions for clinical trials will be provided to your treating doctor in a personalised report. For more information, please go to https://www.xingtech.com.au/.
About Pillar Biosciences
Pillar Biosciences is a global oncology solutions company delivering in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) that provide accurate, robust, timely, clinically actionable insights to guide treatment decisions throughout a patient’s continuum of care. Our mission is to enable access to high quality, affordable, specialty NGS testing, performed by any NGS laboratory as clinical grade tests, closer to home, for all patients.
About Pillar’s Technology Platform
We power the oncology ecosystem with our proprietary, automatable, NGS platform agnostic, SLIMamp™and PiVAT technologies with a simplified workflow to expedite the delivery of robust and dependable clinical test results. Pillar has operations in Natick, MA and Shanghai, China. For more information, visit www.pillar-biosciences.com.
For further about XING Genomic Services information, please contact: Lynn Fink XING Genomic Services Laboratory Director, PhD, FFsc(RCPA) lynn.fink@xingtech.com.auFor further about XING information, please contact: Paul Mainwaring XING TechnologiesCo-Founder & Chairman, MBBS(Syd) MD(Lond) FRACPpaul.mainwaring@xingtech.com.au*S.A. Narod; Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology 2021 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-021-00544-7