A recent post by cujoe on FPC provided comprehensive information on the clinical and analytical validation of FoundationOne CDx biopsy that was FDA approved on August 25th and available for use to help identify patients to treat with rucaparib, also recently approved, in May 2020.
The link below from UroToday provides access to an interview conducted with Oliver Sartor, MD, Professor of Medicine and GU medical oncologist at Tulane and Medical Director of the Tulane Cancer Centre, in Louisiana. The interview provides a comprehensive overview of the benefits of this option for men whose condition is progressing and helps identify treatment options for men with metastatic CRPC. The information in the video gives insight into how this new liquid biopsy can be used in a clinical context and complements the information previously posted by cujoe.
Essentially, the test identifies patients with mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 so these patients are eligible for treatment with rucaparib. As Dr Sartor comments during the presentation ‘within the context of patients who are progressing, then this does open up the universe of other possibilities for that patient…almost everybody will say at least 10% and that’s a very important 10% because we do have a drug that is FDA approved that can target that….yes the drug is important but in this case, without the companion diagnostic you really can’t use the drug. So the companion diagnostic is just as important as the drug itself.’