SeekInCare, a blood-based multi-cancer detection test, can detect more than 20 cancer types with high specificity, according to research presented in a poster at ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Breakthrough 2023. Researchers explained that SeekInCare is based on a multi-dimensional cancer risk score model incorporating copy number aberrations, fragment size, end motifs and oncogenic viruses via shallow whole-genome sequencing from cell-free DNA, and 7 protein tumor markers.
The researchers tested SeekInCare in a retrospective cohort study of 584 patients without cancer and 617 patients with cancer. The cancer patients had 27 cancer types, and all four (4) cancer stages were represented. SeekInCare identified 404 cancer patients with a sensitivity of 65.5% and a specificity of 97.9%. The area under the curve was 0.936. The test’s sensitivity increased with increasing cancer stage. It was 46.9% for stage I, 60.0% for stage II, 68.9% for stage III, and 81.8% for stage IV cancer.
The sensitivity also varied by cancer type. It was 46.2% for breast cancer; 46.4% for stomach cancer; 56.5% for colorectal cancer; 60.0% for gallbladder cancer; 62.8% for lung cancer; 64.7% for pancreatic cancer; 68.5% for lymphoma; 70.0% for esophageal cancer; 77.5% for liver cancer; and 86.7% for leukemia.
The researchers also tested SeekInCare in a prospective, real-world study of 1203 patients. The median follow-up was 753 days. In this cohort, the test had a sensitivity of 60.0%, a specificity of 96.1%, a positive predictive value of 11.5%, and a negative predictive value of 99.7%.
The researchers noted that SeekInCare demonstrated higher sensitivity in this real-world analysis than the blood-based multi-cancer detection tests used in the DETECT-A and PATHFINDER studies; however, the specificity and negative predictive values of the tests were similar.
“The real-world results of SeekInCare warrant future investigation of its clinical utility and health economics as a mass cancer screening test in average-risk populations,” the Researchers wrote in their poster.
Disclosure: This research was supported by SeekIn, Inc. Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.
REFERENCE: Cancer Therapy Advisor; 07 AUG 2023; Hibah Khaja, PharmD