Heather Wietzel on clinical challenges
From Heather Wetzel-The Personalis ACE CancerPlus Test A Comprehensive DNA & RNA Sequencing Solution for · · Labroots
“One of the main challenges in clinical next-generation sequencing cancer testing is having a poorly focused gene test panel—either too many or too few genes that aren't clinically relevant. Coverage gaps, limited gene fusion analysis, and difficulties with FFPE samples also pose significant challenges that we have addressed with our Ace CancerPlus test.”
On , Heather Wietzel, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at PROASSURANCE CORP, spoke about clinical challenges during Heather Wetzel-The Personalis ACE CancerPlus Test A Comprehensive DNA & RNA Sequencing Solution for on Labroots.
About Heather Wietzel
Heather Wetzel, then a representative of Personalis, presented a web seminar in September 2016 on the company's ACE CancerPlus test, a DNA and RNA sequencing test for solid tumors. During the presentation, Wetzel described the test as reporting on 181 clinically relevant genes, powered by a larger panel of over 1,300 genes, and capable of detecting base substitutions, insertions, deletions, copy number alterations, and gene fusions. She stated that early testing through the Department of Veterans Affairs, primarily in non-small cell lung cancer patients, showed that the majority of patients had variants associated with FDA-approved therapies. Wetzel discussed challenges in clinical next-generation sequencing, including poorly focused gene panels, coverage gaps, and difficulties with FFPE tissue samples. She said that Personalis had developed in-house technologies to successfully sequence approximately 90% of FFPE samples received. She noted that the test's validation involved nearly 40 tumor cell lines and achieved over 99% sensitivity for base substitutions at a 5% allele fraction. Wetzel added that the test was available only in North America, ordered by physicians, with a turnaround time of approximately three weeks and pricing competitive with similar tests.