Tempus, a leader in artificial intelligence and precision medicine, today announced a prospective study (NCT05257551), in collaboration with AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN), that aims to identify biomarkers of response in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The study, titled Sculptor, is co-sponsored by Tempus and AstraZeneca’s Personalize SCLC Initiative and is currently open for enrollment.

In the United States, lung cancer is the second most common cancer, and approximately 13% of people diagnosed with lung cancer have SCLC, according to the American Cancer Society. SCLC is an aggressive disease characterized by rapid growth, early metastasis, and acquired therapeutic resistance in which there is a high unmet need for therapeutic targets. To date, there are limited ways to stratify this specific patient population and limited defined therapeutic targets or associated treatments.

The Sculptor study is leveraging Tempus’ comprehensive portfolio of molecular profiling offerings to gather the insights necessary to support this kind of early research, with the goal of identifying distinct segments that may benefit from emerging therapies, or a treatable target from which to develop an associated therapy to treat patients with SCLC. This study is currently active at five TIME Trial Network sites, with plans to expand to additional providers across the country to ensure the study’s dataset is representative of the overall SCLC patient population in the United States.

“This collaborative study will facilitate the investigation of SCLC patient populations to provide us with key insights in hopes of enabling pharmaceutical solutions that increase the overall survival of this disease,” said Kate Sasser, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Tempus. “This type of early-stage, prospective study is only possible when combining Tempus’ comprehensive sequencing capabilities, multimodal database, and just-in-time clinical trial network.”

“We are excited to announce commencement of the first clinical trial stemming from our strategic collaboration with Tempus,” said Cristian Massacesi, Chief Medical Officer & Oncology Chief Development Officer, AstraZeneca. “AstraZeneca’s investigation of novel therapies for SCLC sub-populations is another example of our precision medicine approach and mission to put patients first and follow the science.”

About Tempus

Tempus is a technology company advancing precision medicine through the practical application of artificial intelligence in healthcare. With one of the world’s largest libraries of clinical and molecular data, and an operating system to make that data accessible and useful, Tempus enables physicians to make near real-time, data-driven decisions to deliver personalized patient care and in parallel facilitates discovery, development and delivery of optimal therapeutics. The goal is for each patient to benefit from the treatment of others who came before by providing physicians with tools that learn as the company gathers more data. For more information, visit tempus.com.