Massachusetts-based company, Harbinger Health has struck a partnership with New York hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), to advance a blood-based early cancer detection platform validating a prospective clinical study.
The deal between the two means that Harbinger will leverage MSK’s cancer centre and academic institution to validate the company's assay from its Cancer Origin Epigenetics-Harbinger Health (CORE-HH, NCT05435066) prospective clinical study, in hopes of proving the test to be accessible and clinically informative.
The study is similarly running alongside another clinical study carried out at Tennessee Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI) consisting of 10,000 participants for a clinical trial similarly aimed at validating the company’s blood cancer test.
Interim chief medical officer for Harbinger Health, Hutan Ashrafian said: “We are pleased to collaborate with MSK's renowned team to tap into their state-of-the-art research capabilities and the exceptional diversity of patients with cancer they treat every day.
“MSK will play a critical role in turbocharging our data collection efforts and opening new research directions in the development of affordable, accessible, and clinically informative early cancer detection tests for all patients. Together, we are working towards world-class early cancer detection that could transform the way cancer is diagnosed and managed on a societal level.”
Results from the dual CORE HH study will be used in part of a comprehensive validation program for Harbinger's two-tier, multi-cancer blood test with the company aiming to extend validation to patients with a broader range of tumor types as well as enhance the next generation of diagnostic tests.
The announcement comes more than a year after the company was able to secure $140m in a Series B funding round to complete the Cancer ORigin Epigenetics-Harbinger Health clinical study of one of its cancer screening platforms, HarbingerHx.
Lead investigator in the New York study, Luke Pike, said: “Developing a deeper understanding of early cancer detection using blood tests is an important area of research for us at MSK as we continuously explore ways to improve the care we provide our patients.
“Harbinger's test is compelling for its basis in the biology in the origins of cancer, an insight that has long been known in the cancer field but inaccessible to date as a means of detection. This effort reflects our shared commitment to advancing technology in ways that will benefit patients and healthcare systems alike. We look forward to seeing the impact this collaboration will have in the years to come."
Elsewhere in the field of cancer diagnostics, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Caris Life Sciences’s MI Cancer Seek as a companion diagnostic to multiple cancer drugs across six cancer indications.
