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Nearly 20 years have passed since the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first companion diagnostic and today this type of assay governs the use of 21 different anticancer drugs. The regulators deem these assays essential for the safe and effective use of a corresponding therapeutic product. The companion diagnostic assays are important both during the drug development process as well as essential treatment decision tools after the approval of the drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companion diagnostics (CDx) holds the promise of improving the predictability of the oncology drug development process and become an important tool for the oncologist in relation to the choice of treatment for the individual patient. A number of drug-diagnostic co-development programs have already been completed successfully, and in the clinic, the use of several targeted cancer drugs is now guided by a CDx. This central role of the CDx assays has attracted the attention of the regulators, and especially the US FDA has been at the forefront in relation to developing regulatory strategies for CDx and the drug-diagnostic co-development project. For an increasing number of cancer patients the treatment selection will depend on the result generated by a CDx assay, and consequently this type of assay has become critical for the care and safety of the patients. In order to secure that the CDx assays have a high degree of analytical and clinical validity they must undergo an extensive non-clinical and clinical testing before release for routine patient management. This review will give a brief introduction to some of the scientific and medical challenges related to the CDx development with specific emphasis on the regulatory requirements in different regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The immune checkpoint inhibitors pembrolizumab and nivolumab together with their diagnostic assays have recently been granted market authorization for treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer in the USA. The two assays, PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx and PD-L1 IHC 28-8 pharmDx (both by Dako, Glostrup, Denmark), are the first PD-L1 IHC assays to obtain regulatory approval through the Premarket Approval process. This approval is supported by recent clinical studies that have shown a positive correlation between PD-L1 expression and the outcome following treatment with different PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors. These diagnostic assays are able to identify the group of non-small-cell lung cancer patients who will benefit most from treatment with the immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, so far, it is only the PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx assay, which is linked to the use of pembrolizumab, that has obtained regulatory status as a companion diagnostic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background. Previous analyses of TOP2A and HER2 in the Danish Breast Cancer Coopererative Group (DBCG) trial 89D suggested that TOP2A amplifications and possible also deletions are predictive markers for the effect of adjuvant epirubicin in patients with primary breast cancer. We present an updated and extended statistical analysis, requested for IVD-labeling of TOP2A testing. Material and methods. In the DBCG trial 89D 980 Danish patients were randomly assigned to nine cycles of intravenous CMF (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil) or CEF (cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and fluorouracil). Archival tumor tissue was collected retrospectively from 806 of these patients in a prospectively designed, biological sub-study, and was successfully analyzed for TOP2A aberrations and HER2 status in 773 samples (96%). Recurrence-free survival (RFS) was the primary endpoint. Results. TOP2A aberrations (amplifications and deletions) were significantly associated with shorter RFS (p<0.0001) and overall survival (OS) (p<0.0001). Deleted cases had worse prognosis than amplified cases. In a Cox proportional hazard model TOP2A was an independent prognostic marker for RFS and OS. Patients with amplifications had a 61% reduction in the risk of an event (p=0.002) and a 51% reduction in the risk of death (p=0.01) if allocated to CEF compared to 6% and 10% in TOP2A normal patients. A similar but non-significant trend (p=0.08) was shown in patients with TOP2A deletions. Clear statistical evidence of a differential benefit, favoring CEF among patients with TOP2A aberrations was found for RFS (p=0.02 for interaction) but not for OS (p=0.14 for interaction). Conclusion. In conclusion, this updated analysis of TOP2A aberrations in DBCG trial 89D suggests a differential benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with primary breast cancer, favoring treatment with epirubicin in patients with TOP2A amplifications, and perhaps deletions. Additional studies are needed to clarify the exact importance of TOP2A deletions on outcome, but deletions have proven to be associated with a very poor prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses personalized cancer care using molecular analysis of tumors to choose treatment methods, arguing that the attitudes and personal values of individual patients are also important factors in cancer treatment decision making.

Use of predictive biomarkers plays a promising role in stratifying patients to a more effective medical treatment with less side effects. This review provides a brief overview in a Danish context of the potential of applying pharmacogenomics (PGx) including companion diagnostics (CDx) in daily clinical practice based on the current knowledge and regulation from the FDA and EMA, Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC), PharmGKB (pharmacogenomics knowledge resource providing clinical dosing guidelines) and partly promedicin.dk. Also, the barriers to more widespread use are being addressed.

The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is an important target for treatment of gastroesophageal cancer. Different slide-based assays are available for assessment of HER2 status. Overexpression of the HER2 protein is assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) whereas amplification of the HER2 gene is assessed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or other in situ hybridization (ISH) methods. Here we report a summary of the validation data on HER2 IQFISH pharmDx™ (Dako Omnis), a newly developed assay for the automated staining platform Dako Omnis. This assay uses a non-toxic buffer that significantly reduces the hybridization time, which results in a total turnaround time of less than 4 hours from deparaffinization to counting of the gene and centromere signals. The data reported in the current summary cover method comparison, assessment of staining quality, observer-to-observer reproducibility as well as reproducibility within and between laboratories. Based on data from the different studies it was concluded that HER2 IQFISH pharmDx (Dako Omnis) is a reliable and robust assay, with high precision and at least comparable to the manual HER2 IQFISH pharmDx™ assay. The HER2 IQFISH pharmDx (Dako Omnis) assay is currently not commercially available outside the Europe Union.

In breast cancer the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is an important target for a number of different HER2 inhibitors. Different slide-based assays are available for assessment of treatment eligibility, which include fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or other in situ hybridization (ISH) methods for assessment of the HER2 gene status. Here we report a summary of the validation data on HER2 IQFISH pharmDx™ (Dako Omnis), a newly developed assay for the automated staining platform Dako Omnis. The assay uses a non-toxic buffer that significantly reduces the hybridization time, which results in a total turnaround time of 3½ to 4h from deparaffinization to counting of the gene and centromere signals. The data reported in the current summary covers method comparison, assessment of staining quality, observer-to-observer reproducibility as well as reproducibility within and between laboratories. Based on data from the different studies it was concluded that HER2 IQFISH pharmDx (Dako Omnis) is a reliable and robust assay with a high precision that is at least comparable to the manual HER2 IQFISH pharmDx™ assay and the PathVysion(®)HER-2 DNA Probe Kit., (Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Most human cancer cells have structural aberrations of chromosomal regions leading to loss or gain of gene specific alleles. This study aimed to assess the range of gene copies per nucleus of thymidylate synthase (TYMS), thymidine phosphorylase (TP) and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) in colorectal cancer, and to evaluate its prognostic significance following adjuvant chemotherapy, since these enzymes are closely related to efficacy of 5-fluorouracil (5FU)., Patients and Methods: Consecutive patients (n = 314), who were completely resected for colorectal cancer stages II-IV and adjuvantly treated with 5-FU were retrospectively evaluated. Paraffin embedded tumor specimens were assessed for gene copies per nucleus of TYMS, TP and DHFR by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) using specific peptide nucleic acid probes. Outcome according to gene copies per nucleus above and below the median were compared. Also TYMS expression, assessed by immunohistochemistry, was associated with TYMS copies per nucleus., Results: The number of gene copies per nucleus were 1.7 (0.7-2.8), 1.8 (0.9-3.1) and 1.8 (1.1-2.7) median (range) for TYMS, TP and DHFR, respectively. TYMS expression was directly associated with TYMS genes per nucleus (p = 0.05). Cox multivariate analysis, adjusted for the prognostic impact of disease stage, vascular tumor invasion, and bowel obstruction at resection, revealed that high TYMS gene copy number was associated with significantly higher risk of recurrence (HR = 1.6; 95%CI 1.1-2.2; p = 0.02) and death (HR = 1.6; 95%CI 1.1-2.3; p = 0.01). No significant differences in outcome appeared according to TP and DHFR gene ratios., Conclusion: Aberration of TYMS gene is of significance to expression of TYMS, which may influence the biology and 5-FU sensitivity of colorectal cancer. This may be utilized in the allocation of patients for treatment approaches and for decision on follow-up programs.