Response Genetics Reports Launch of New Test for Cancer Immunotherapy

Response Genetics, Inc. RGDX, a company focused on the development and sale of molecular diagnostic tests that help guide cancer therapy selection, today announced the availability of new testing capabilities to advance cancer immunotherapy clinical development. The Immuno-Oncology assay, which runs on HTG Molecular's Edge System, is designed to measure the RNA expression of 26 commonly investigated immunotherapy related genes enabling screening for response to immunoregulatory pathways. The Iummo-Oncology test will be made available to all of Response Genetics' existing biopharmaceutical partners, and new potential partners, to aid in development of biomarker driven cancer immunotherapy clinical trials. "As the field of cancer immunotherapy continues to expand with potential immunotherapeutic targets in a broad range of malignancies, we are pleased to add immunotherapy testing to the portfolio of services we offer to our biopharma clients," said Thomas A. Bologna, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Response Genetics.  "Regulation of the immune system is the key to several therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment. A number of clinical development programs being pioneered by large pharma are focused on signaling pathways like PD-1, PD-L1, OX-40, LAG3 and CTLA4 with the goal of enabling the immune system to attack cancer cells. The new assay covers these pathways as well as numerous other targets." Mr. Bologna added, "As evidenced at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the characterization of biomarkers of response to immunotherapeutic agents is focused on the expression levels of the relevant receptors and ligands. Response Genetics was among the first commercial organizations to harness the power of mRNA expression profiling as a means to guide cancer therapy selection. The addition of the Immuno-Oncology assay allows our pharma partners to further leverage our expertise in RNA-based testing to shed light on potential biomarkers that identify patients likely to respond to this new class of therapies."