Roswell Park Plans National Services

Today, institutions that want to provide cancer genomics typically must figure out for themselves how to collect and store samples, select gene targets, and use genetic analyses in treatment. So far, that has generally meant that only the biggest centers provide routine genetic analyses for their cancer patients, and often only in limited ways.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, hopes to change that. The institute has partnered with its Buffalo neighbor, Computer Task Group, or CTG, which provides electronic medical records technology, to help community hospitals and physician practices around the country collect, manage, integrate, and analyze patient genetic information.

“These are challenges that every hospital in every area is addressing in the era of personalized medicine,” says Candace Johnson, PhD, Roswell Park's deputy director.

The institute's Center for Personalized Medicine (CPM) is just getting started, she says, but plans eventually to provide new biomarkers, therapies, and diagnostic tools.

One of its first projects involves a screen for gene mutations in lung cancer. Testing for 6 common mutations today typically requires 6 assays, each costing around $1,000, says Carl Morrison, MD, DVM, the new center's executive director. Roswell is working to win approval for a single panel that would cover all 6, with 2 more assays to be added soon. The institute has not yet set a price for its assay, but it will be far below the combined cost of 8 separate ones, Morrison says.

In the second quarter of this year, the CPM expects to launch its commercial venture with next-generation sequencing assays focused on therapeutic decision-making for lung cancer. Additional next-generation sequencing assays focused on helping doctors make diagnostic decisions for some other cancers—possibly melanoma and/or colorectal cancer—could be ready by the fourth quarter.

Roswell Park plans to offer its own patients the same tests and services it will provide commercially.

The institute will focus its efforts on mutations for which there is a targeted drug available, Morrison emphasizes. It doesn't make sense, he says, to generate information that doesn't lead to better treatment.

The CPM has also launched a 3-part translational research initiative. One project aims to predict on a case-by-case basis whether anthracycline-based or platinum-based chemotherapy offers the best results with the fewest side effects in treating breast cancer. A second effort will develop a diagnostic test for superficial bladder cancer, while a third will survey and collect tissues from 600 healthy volunteers to identify western New York's particular healthcare needs.

CTG has committed $2.5 million to the center. New York State chipped in $5.1 million to promote economic development in the Buffalo area, and Roswell Park contributed $16 million.

The institute's efforts are “extremely forward-looking,” comments Robert B. Darnell, MD, PhD, senior physician at The Rockefeller University in New York City and president and scientific director of the nonprofit New York Genome Center. “It will take years of work to take genomics from being promising to truly delivering for patients. That's where Roswell Park can be at the forefront.”

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://CDnews.aacrjournals.org.