NEW YORK – Targeted radiotherapeutics firm Plus Therapeutics and liquid biopsy developer Biocept have signed a laboratory services agreement under which Biocept will use its cerebrospinal fluid test platform to evaluate patient responses to treatment in Plus’ ReSPECT-LM trial.
ReSPECT-LM is a Phase I/IIa dose-escalation trial of Rhenium-186 NanoLiposome (186RNL) for the treatment of patients with cancer that has metastasized to the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord.
Biocept’s CNSide assay is designed to assess and quantify tumor cell burden in these leptomeningeal metastasis cases by capturing circulating tumor cells in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with a variety of solid tumors.
Plus Chief Medical Officer Norman LaFrance said in a statement that all patients in the trial will have permanent access to the CSF via an intraventricular catheter, allowing medical staff to draw CSF "as easily as blood." He called CNSide the most sophisticated and powerful platform available for monitoring tumor status and therapeutic response.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.