NEW YORK – The National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute announced Wednesday that it has launched a blood and bone marrow cancer trial in its Myeloid Malignancies Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice, or myeloMATCH, program.
Funded by the National Cancer Institute, the proof-of-concept precision medicine clinical trial will test combinations of treatments targeting genetic changes in the cancer cells of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.
The myeloMATCH trial aims to enroll several thousand people within the first few years, NCI said in a statement, with new substudies rolled out over time.
Richard Little, the NCI coordinator for the myeloMATCH trial at the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, noted in a statement that treatment advances depend in part on the ability to rapidly identify which subtype of cancer a patient has so that treatments can be tested for their specific cancer.
"The goal of myeloMATCH is to test combinations of drugs to treat the disease in a highly targeted way and to be able to start treatment quickly after diagnosis," Little said.
In the myeloMATCH trial, newly diagnosed AML or MDS patients will undergo rapid genetic testing of tumor samples to be matched to a study testing an appropriate precision treatment, or a standard treatment if none is available.
If the initial treatment reduces a patient's disease, they will undergo further genetic testing to match them to a subsequent study testing a treatment that is appropriate for the specific genetic changes associated with their remaining disease, NCI said in a statement. As the amount of a patient's disease decreases, study investigators will use increasingly sensitive tools, such as biomarker assays, to identify appropriate treatments for any remaining cancer cells, NCI also said.
"NCI is uniquely positioned to conduct this type of study, which is one of a series of NCI precision medicine trials that are helping pave the way for more personalized treatment of cancer," NCI Director Kimryn Rathmell said in a statement. "By making these trials available to patients in communities around the country, we bring cutting-edge science to people where they live and ensure that what we learn from our study participants can benefit patients like them in the future."
Blood and bone marrow samples collected from participants during the course of the trial will be used to develop and refine the assays, as well as understand what genetic changes might be associated with the development of resistance to a treatment.
The myeloMATCH trial is being conducted by the National Clinical Trials Network, with the participation of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program.
Initial substudies will be led by the SWOG Cancer Research Network, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. In addition, the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will provide clinical laboratory support for the substudies.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has partnered with NCI to provide Ion Torrent Genexus next-generation sequencing platforms, and Actinium Pharmaceuticals will make its CD33-targeted radiotherapy Actimab-A available in the trial.
In addition to myeloMATCH, NCI's next-generation precision medicine trials include ComboMATCH to test the effectiveness of treating adults and children who have relapsed solid tumors with new drug combinations that target specific tumor alterations, and ImmunoMATCH, a pilot study to determine whether prospective characterization of the immune status of a tumor can be used to improve the response to targeted immunotherapy treatments. The agency plans to expand to larger studies in the future.