ROTTERDAM (the Netherlands) and SAN DIEGO (US), July 23rd, 2019: the academic hematology department of Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) is globally the first hospital to offer every multiple myeloma (blood cancer) patient an innovative diagnostic service that predicts the aggressiveness of the disease by measuring 92 genes in the cancer cells [1]. Previously, the test has been made available for a small group of patients through early access programs or as part of a clinical trial. By providing this diagnostic service for all their patients, EMC shows once again to be a true health care innovator.
“Patients with an aggressive character of their disease are classified as high-risk and relapse faster. This requires a different consideration in the management of the disease then when a patient is at low- or intermediate risk of relapse. Determining the risk of relapse is an important step in assessing the status and course of the disease and has been done in multiple myeloma for a long time. Unfortunately, current diagnostic standards miss about 10% of high-risk patients that relapse early and that might want to change their treatment plan”, explains Dharminder Chahal, CEO SkylineDx that developed the diagnostic test used by EMC. The test that can determine this risk profile accurately is called MMprofilerTM in Europe and measures the expression of all the genes in a myeloma cancer cell. After that, the SKY92 algorithm calculates the expression of 92 specific genes and the result predicts the aggressiveness of the disease which can be used to direct the treatment strategy of individual myeloma patients.
“After years of research in which we have published a substantial amount of scientific evidence showing the reliability of our standardized test in finding all the true high-risk patients, it is an honor to have a renowned multiple myeloma center of expertise like EMC showing confidence by becoming our first clinical customer”, concludes Dharminder Chahal.
About SkylineDx
SkylineDx is a high-tech commercial-stage biotech company headquartered in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and a commercial office and CAP/CLIA certified laboratory in San Diego, California, USA. The company uses its expertise to bridge the gap between academically discovered gene expression signatures and commercially available diagnostic products with high clinical utility. With the focus on diagnostics, SkylineDx assists healthcare professionals in accurately determining the type or status of the disease or to predict a patient’s response to a specific treatment. Based on the test results, healthcare professionals can tailor the treatment to the individual patient. To learn more, please visit www.skylinedx.com.
Footnotes
- Myeloma Patients Europe webinar 2019 on personalized medicine (link).
