Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC) (Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC)) has highlighted how its CNSide cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assay could improve the treatment options for brain cancer patients.
The biotech has been presenting at the Molecular & Precision Med Tri-Con meeting - the leading international meeting for the precision medicine community - being held in San Diego between February 21 and 23 this year.
CNSide is based on Biocept's proprietary quantitative tumor cell capture and detection method, paired with assays to identify actionable treatment.
The company says it answers three key questions that may help inform treatment decisions: Is there a tumor? Is there a target for treatment? Is there a trend to treatment response?
READ: Biocept appoints Samuel Riccitelli as its interim CEO and Antonino Morales as interim CFO
At the San Diego presentation, Biocept's chief medical officer and medical director Michael Dugan discussed the growing interest in improving the diagnosis and treatment of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) —a devastating complication in which metastatic cancer spreads to the membrane surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
Newer targeted therapies can often reduce or resolve debilitating symptoms of LMD and extend life expectancy, noted Biocept.
But, it added that the current standards of care—CSF cytology and radiological imaging—have limited sensitivity for detecting central nervous system metastasis, and do not identify molecular treatment targets or quantify tumor cell counts.
"A key to precision medicine is identifying molecular targets for therapy," explained Dr. Dugan.
"Relying on the primary tumor is not sufficient because biomarker status often differs between the primary and metastatic tumors.
"With CNSide, we have the first commercially available method to measure biomarker status in real-time during therapy and quantify changes in tumor cell counts to really understand how patients are responding to therapy-as opposed to waiting months for radiologic changes or another surgical biopsy."
A recording of the presentation entitled "A Novel CSF Assay to Help Diagnose, Manage, and Follow Response to Therapy in Patients with Leptomeningeal Metastasis," will be available on the Biocept website after the conference concludes.
Biocept develops and commercializes molecular diagnostic assays that provide physicians with information for treating and monitoring patients diagnosed with a variety of cancers.
Contact the writer at giles@proactiveinvestors.com