Benzinga | Aug 27, 2020 09:05AM EDT

Natera Announces Collaboration With Massachusetts General Hospital For A Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial In Early Stage Breast Cancer

Study to use Signatera(tm) to test effectiveness of Ribociclib in combination with endocrine therapy versus standard endocrine therapy

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Aug. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA), a pioneer and global leader in cell-free DNA, today announced a collaborative agreement with Mass General Cancer Center (MGCC) of Massachusetts General Hospital, related to an investigator-initiated multi-center, Phase II randomized clinical trial of Ribociclib (Kisqali(r)), a CDK4/6 inhibitor, for the treatment of ER-positive breast cancer (LEADER), the first circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)-based study of a CDK4/6 inhibitor in ER-positive early stage breast cancer.

LEADER (part II) will randomize patients who have localized post-menopausal breast cancer with detectable ctDNA after surgery as evidence of minimal residual disease (MRD), and will determine tumor molecular response after Ribociclib in combination with endocrine therapy versus endocrine therapy alone. Natera's Signatera test will be used to determine patient enrollment eligibility based on presence of ctDNA via longitudinal monitoring and to evaluate response based on ctDNA clearance as the primary endpoint.

"With the overwhelming evidence that patients with detectable ctDNA are at high risk for relapse, our goal is to investigate a new treatment strategy for these patients and reduce risk of disease recurrence," said Aditya Bardia, MD, MPH, the study's principal investigator from MGCC, Harvard Medical School. "Since the LEADER trial is in the MRD setting, it is critical to use a highly sensitive assay."

Breast cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States,1 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Ribociclib in combination with aromatase inhibitors as a first-line treatment option for advanced/metastatic (stage IV) disease.

"We are proud to partner with Massachusetts General Hospital on this exciting new approach of using Signatera personalized ctDNA analysis for enrollment and evaluation of treatment response to CDK4/6 inhibitors in the MRD setting," said Alexey Aleshin, MD, MBA, Natera's Senior Medical Director for Oncology. "We believe this collaboration may pave the way for more trials using ctDNA to study the effectiveness of an investigational drug in early stage breast cancer."