Delfi Diagnostics has put forward a new cancer monitoring test that searches the blood for broken pieces of tumor DNA, and it is kicking off the test’s launch with a collaboration with Immunocore to explore its use in multiple malignancies.
The fragmentome-based liquid biopsy test is currently limited to research use only. Delfi describes it as a highly sensitive means of measuring tumor burden and gauging a cancer’s response or resistance to treatment.
“The DELFI-TF assay delivers a genome-wide measure of the proportion of [cell-free DNA] derived from a tumor and it is highly correlated with the mutant allele fraction that is often used to evaluate treatment response and resistance to immunotherapies in advanced cancer patients,” Nicholas Dracopoli, Delfi’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, said in a statement.
Immunocore, meanwhile, will help explore the clinical and research potential of the assay, Dracopoli said. The U.K.-based developer of bispecific T-cell receptor immunotherapies will also examine the test’s use as an early predictor of patient benefit from its treatments.