Lung cancer therapy prediction test Pulmotax effective, claims Clarient

Pulmotax, a test to predict the effectiveness of chemotherapy in lung cancer patients developed by Clarient, has been found effective in clinical studies.

Clarient, Inc announced that data from a new study suggest that the Clarient Insight Dx Pulmotax assay may effectively predict which lung cancer patients will respond favorably to chemotherapy.

The study, titled “TLE3 expression is predictive of response to chemotherapy in NSCLC,” included 368 samples from carcinoma patients.

The majority of advanced-stage patients who were treated with chemotherapy received a treatment regimen containing a taxane class agent.

Pulmotax is a single antibody immunohistochemistry test created to detect the expression of TLE3 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Prior data have linked TLE3 expression specifically to response to taxane therapy in breast and ovarian carcinoma patients.

For advanced NSCLC, taxane therapy is often selected as part of standard therapy; however, the inclusion of taxane carries with it an increased incidence of severe side effects which can seriously complicate patient management.

The study observed a striking relationship between TLE3 expression in advanced lung cancer patients and response to chemotherapy in a patient population where most patients received a taxane agent as part of their treatment regimen. These results suggest that treatments may be targeted to those patients most likely to benefit from taxane therapy,  stated Dr. Soltermann.

This marks the third tissue type where our proprietary TLE3 marker shows solid association to taxane therapy response, Clarient officials said.

The consistent relationship between this diagnostic biomarker and tumor response in breast, ovarian and now lung carcinoma is encouraging as it represents the potential to bring to market a product that can positively impact patient care in many different solid tumor types.

Clarient currently expects to commercially launch its product line for taxane sensitivity in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Clarient combines innovative diagnostic technologies with pathology expertise to assess and characterize cancer. Clarient’s mission is to become the leader in cancer diagnostics by collaborating with the healthcare community to translate cancer research and development into better patient care.

Clarient’s principal customers include pathologists, oncologists, hospitals and biopharmaceutical companies. Clarient also plans to develop and market new, proprietary “companion” diagnostic markers for therapeutics in breast, prostate, ovarian, lung and colon cancers, and leukemia and lymphoma.