Genomic Health Develops New Methods for Whole Genome Expression Analysis of Standard Pathology Tumor Specimens

Record Date: 9/8/2010
Company: Genomic Health

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 1, 2010 -- Genomic Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: GHDX) today announced that its research scientists have developed a clinically useful method for whole genome expression analysis using standard tumor specimens that are routinely collected in clinical practice. Genomic Health is now able to access the entire transcriptome, or all of the RNA that is made by cells, in order to quantify the gene expression profile in a single assay using next generation DNA sequencing technology developed by Illumina. Results demonstrating the successful whole genome expression and mutation analysis from formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor samples were presented last week at the 11th Annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

"We have developed proprietary technology that allows whole genome expression analysis from very small amounts of RNA contained in standard pathology specimens," said Dominick Sinicropi, Senior Scientist at Genomic Health. "The ability to conduct genome-wide expression analysis on archival samples should accelerate clinical discovery and validation of advanced diagnostics for the many different types of cancer that are diagnosed today."

The study was designed to compare expression profiles between two estrogen receptor positive and estrogen receptor negative breast cancer FFPE specimens that were 7-8 years old. The RNA from these types of samples is highly fragmented and available in minute quantities, making it extremely difficult to conduct expression analysis on a genome-wide scale until now.

In the study, scientists were able to successfully extract, amplify, purify and sequence the complete transcriptome from these FFPE tissues using new RNA preparation chemistry developed by Genomic Health scientists specifically for these types of samples. Up to 18 million RNA transcripts from the individual tumor specimens were sequenced resulting in both expression profiles and mutation data on more than 25,000 protein coding genes as well as tens of thousands of non-coding transcripts.

"These results suggest that it may soon be technically and economically feasible to use whole genome expression analysis in large clinical trials utilizing routine pathology specimens leading to real commercial applications that may ultimately benefit cancer patients," said Joffre Baker, Chief Scientific Officer at Genomic Health. "With that goal in mind, we intend to accelerate our research and development efforts to move this new technology into clinical studies."

Clinical Areas: Oncology