ROTTERDAM (the Netherlands) and SAN DIEGO (US), February 15, 2021: today, SkylineDx announced a research collaboration with an academic hospital and a Dutch cancer registry to investigate patients with early-stage melanoma (skin cancer) at high risk of disease-related fatality. Approximately 90% of all melanoma patients are diagnosed with an early-stage melanoma (American Joint Classification on Cancer [AJCC] stage I/II), without any lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis at time of diagnosis. However, 41% of melanoma-related deaths, are these early-stage patients that are anticipated to have a good prognosis at their diagnosis. As current predictors are not sufficient to identify the specific patient group that should be considered high risk for recurrence, the consortium will dedicate their research to find new or additional variables and attempt to develop an accurate biomarker for this specific purpose. With the aim for a non-invasive tool and identification of this high-risk patient at diagnosis, the consortium collaborates to find these variables in the primary tumor (including genes and proteins). The patient will always have their primary tumor removed; therefore, no additional medical intervention is necessary for this research.
“Identifying these early-stage patients at high risk of melanoma-related fatality at diagnosis is needed to positively change their clinical pathway”, comments Jvalini Dwarkasing, scientific- and clinical lead at SkylineDx. “Currently, early-stage patients with thin melanomas, are not eligible for any follow-up visits according to the Dutch melanoma guideline”.
“Our Falcon melanoma R&D Program is set-up to address medical unmet needs with innovative biomarkers on the whole skin cancer array”, concludes Dharminder Chahal, CEO SkylineDx. “After the Merlin Study Initiative that focuses on the selection of patients that can safely forgo lymph node surgery due to their low risk for metastasis and the Peregrine Study Initiative that focuses on recurrence prediction in general, we could potentially add a third clinical utility: predicting the risk that an early-stage patient will develop distant metastasis”.
About SkylineDx
SkylineDx is a biotechnology company, focused on research & development of molecular diagnostics in oncology and inflammatory diseases. The company is headquartered in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and complemented with a field medical and scientific affairs team in the US and a CAP/CLIA certified laboratory in San Diego (California). SkylineDx uses its expertise to bridge the gap between academically discovered gene expression signatures and commercially available diagnostic products with high clinical utility, assisting healthcare professionals in accurately determining the type or status of disease or predict a patient’s response to treatment. Based on test results, healthcare professionals can tailor the treatment approach to the individual patient. To learn more, please visit www.skylinedx.com.
