I-Corps: Precision Oncology Software

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力包括提高结肠癌患者的总体存活率和降低医疗保健费用。由于每年有超过170万的美国人被诊断患有癌症，因此迫切需要更好的预后测试，以便为正确的患者选择正确的治疗方法。然而，在结肠癌中，目前的预后测试往往不能为大量患者选择正确的治疗方法。这个I-Corps项目将开发一种预后测试，专门针对III期结肠癌患者，这将更准确地为新诊断的患者选择正确的治疗方法。该测试将是一个精确的肿瘤学软件，通过专有算法分析每个患者活检的基因组信息，以预测每种治疗方案的反应。主要客户群将是专门研究胃肠道肿瘤的内科肿瘤学家，他们将使用该测试来选择对每位患者最有利的治疗方法，并最终提高总体生存率。次级客户群体将是保险公司，他们将使用该测试来做出基于价值的报销决策，并避免与无效治疗相关的成本。I-Corps项目旨在进一步发展一种预测结肠癌的检测方法。该测试将分析III期结肠癌患者的RNA测序数据，以确定一组专有基因的表达水平，这些基因可预测对结肠癌标准化疗的反应。这些基因是在一种创新的离体细胞培养系统中发现的，该系统保存了癌细胞的生物学特性，并允许鉴定具有临床意义的新型生物标志物。这些新的生物标志物比已知的生物标志物更准确地确定治疗反应。对来自癌症基因组图谱计划数据库的100名III期结肠癌患者的回顾性分析显示，这些基因在80%的III期结肠癌患者中高表达，这些患者也从化疗中显著受益。相反，剩下的20%没有从化疗中获益的患者没有表达这些基因。使用新的预后测试将结肠癌患者分为有反应组和无反应组，并对每位患者进行正确的治疗，提高了5年生存率。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project includes improvement of overall survival rates for colon cancer patients and reduction of healthcare costs. As more than 1.7 million Americans are being diagnosed with cancer each year, there is an urgent need for better prognostic tests for selection of the right therapy for the right patient. However, in colon cancer, current prognostic tests often fail to select the right treatment for a significant number of patients. This I-Corps project will develop a prognostic test, specifically for stage III colon cancer patients, that will more accurately choose the right treatment for newly diagnosed patients. The test will be a precision oncology software that analyzes genomic information from each patient's biopsy with a proprietary algorithm to predict response to each treatment option. The primary customer segment will be medical oncologists specializing in gastrointestinal tumors, who will use the test to choose the treatment that will be most beneficial to each patient and ultimately improve overall survival rates. Secondary customer segment will be insurance companies that will use the test to make value-based reimbursement decisions and to avoid costs associated with treatments that are not effective.This I-Corps project aims to further develop a prognostic colon cancer test. The test will analyze RNA sequencing data of stage III colon cancer patients to determine the expression levels of a proprietary set of genes that predict response to standard-of-care chemotherapies used for colon cancer. These genes were discovered in an innovative ex vivo cell culture system that conserve the biological properties of cancer cells and allow identification of novel biomarkers that show clinical significance. These novel biomarkers determine therapy response more accurately than known biomarkers. Retrospective analysis of 100 stage III colon cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas Project database showed high expression of these genes in 80% of stage III colon cancer patients who also benefit significantly from chemotherapy. Conversely, the remaining 20% of patients, who do not benefit from chemotherapy, did not express these genes. Using the new prognostic test to stratify colon cancer patients to responder versus non-responder groups and administering the right treatment for each patient, increased 5-year survival rates.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.