CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foundation Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:FMI) and Sarah Cannon Research Institute (Sarah Cannon) today announced a collaboration focused on advancing personalized medicine utilizing molecular information for patients across Sarah Cannon’s cancer programs in the United States. The organizations will gather results from Foundation Medicine’s full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) assays to personalize treatment options for patients and to ultimately support improved outcomes.
Sarah Cannon is one of the world’s leading clinical research organizations conducting community-based clinical trials across a global network. Researchers can use Foundation Medicine’s CGP assays, FoundationOne® for use with solid tumors, FoundationOne®Heme for use with hematologic malignancies and FoundationACT™ for use as a liquid biopsy, to identify eligible patients for participation in Sarah Cannon’s clinical studies. Foundation Medicine’s CGP assays aid treating physicians and researchers to more effectively screen and match patients to early and late-phase clinical trials based on their genomic information. Sarah Cannon will also integrate Interactive Cancer Explorer®, Foundation Medicine’s physician facing decision support portal, across its network to facilitate clinico-genomic knowledge among researchers and to enhance patient access to precision therapeutics.
Additionally, Sarah Cannon and Foundation Medicine have entered into a master research program agreement to collaborate on the development of research studies, as well as clinical programs designed to evaluate and establish the most appropriate use of Foundation Medicine’s assays into clinical care pathways.
“Our physicians are at the forefront of clinical research through our work with novel investigative therapies,” said Howard A. “Skip” Burris, M.D., president, clinical operations and chief medical officer, Sarah Cannon. “Clinical trials, particularly those where patients can be molecularly matched to a study, are an integral part of effectively treating many types of cancers and accelerating patient access to novel therapies. We’re excited to collaborate with Foundation Medicine as we continue to enhance access to molecular information, which helps improve clinical care and inform research across our network.”
Sarah Cannon and Foundation Medicine will also work together to develop training and educational programs that support the advancement of personalized medicine, including work with Sarah Cannon’s Nurse Navigator Program, a high-touch, personalized support program that enables nurses to comprehensively manage a patient’s experience with cancer.
“Precision medicine in cancer can be achieved by innovating new ideas that accelerate patient access to novel compounds in development,” said Steven Kafka, president and chief operating officer for Foundation Medicine. “Together with Sarah Cannon, we believe we are in a unique position to eliminate roadblocks to patient access, to integrate genomics knowledge into clinical pathways and to extend that knowledge across the cancer care continuum to accelerate research and drive better outcomes for all patients.”
About Sarah Cannon Research Institute
Sarah Cannon Research Institute is the research arm of HCA’s global cancer institute, Sarah Cannon. Focused on advancing therapies for patients, it is one of the world’s leading clinical research organizations conducting community-based clinical trials throughout the United States and United Kingdom. Sarah Cannon’s network of strategic sites includes more than 275 physicians who engage in research. The organization has led more than 250 first-in-man clinical trials since its inception in 1993, and has been a clinical trial leader in more than two-thirds of approved cancer therapies over the last 10 years. Additionally, Sarah Cannon offers management, regulatory, and other research support services for drug development and industry sponsors as well as strategic investigator sites through its contract research organization (CRO), Sarah Cannon Development Innovations (formerly known as SCRI Development Innovations). For more information, visit sarahcannon.com.
About Foundation Medicine
Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient's unique cancer. The company offers a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patient's cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine's molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).
