Biocept cites peer-reviewed study highlighting success of liquid biopsy testing in lung cancer patients

Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC) said Tuesday that a peer-reviewed article showed that the company’s liquid biopsy testing of three patients with a type of lung cancer detected activating mutations where tissue biopsies were inadequate.

The article in the January issue of the medical journal Clinics in Oncology cited the company’s Target Selector circulating tumor DNA testing in the management of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

READ: Biocept rallies on release of kits to broaden use of liquid biopsy technology

One patient, according to a statement from San Diego-based Biocept, had a complete response to therapy for about two years, while two patients received third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment with osimertinib after their disease had progressed and a resistance mutation, known as  EGFR T790M, was identified in their blood.

“Biocept’s highly sensitive liquid biopsy testing was able to identify positive EGFR activating mutation biomarker status in all three patients at diagnosis when tissue biopsy was insufficient,” Dr Rodrigo Erlich, who treated the patients at Bay Oncology in Easton, Maryland, said.

Erlich is now a medical oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Biocept CEO Michael Nall added that “we continue to expand the clinical evidence supporting the use of our Target Selector platform.”

Non-small cell lung cancer is a collection of cancer types whose pathology is classified by the state of cells as well as genetic and protein biomarkers.

Shares of Biocept slipped US$0.01 to US$1.90 in Tuesday’s Nasdaq trading.

On January 28, the stock rallied after the company announced the release of kits designed to broaden the use of its technology.

Contact Dennis Fitzgerald at [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors