BALTIMORE, Jan. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Haystack Oncology, a Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) company, has entered into a collaboration with Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC (AFT) for research use of Haystack Oncology's personalized MRD technology (Haystack MRD™) to analyze therapeutic response and provide molecular insights for AFT's interventional, randomized phase II clinical trial (AFT-57) in patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The AFT-57 clinical study is supported by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and will explore the efficacy and safety of an anti-PD-L1 atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) with or without tiragolumab (anti-TIGIT) in conjunction with chemoradiotherapy.

"This research collaboration with AFT is a great opportunity to further explore the benefits of using highly sensitive and specific ctDNA analysis as a means to evaluate the efficacy of novel therapeutic approaches," said Dan Edelstein, Vice President and General Manager of Haystack Oncology. "Haystack MRD was purpose-built to detect ctDNA with unparalleled sensitivity, making it well-positioned to support the innovation of new treatment regimens."

"AFT is excited to work with Haystack Oncology to investigate promising new immunotherapy-based treatments in nationwide randomized cancer clinical trials," said David Kozono, MD, PhD, AFT Executive Officer and Alliance Immuno-Oncology Committee Co-Chair. "The new MRD technology, in conjunction with these novel therapies, offers a unique opportunity to significantly impact the lives of patients with inoperable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer."

About Haystack Oncology

Haystack Oncology represents the culmination of over 20 years of technical and clinical development in liquid biopsy technologies by cancer genomics pioneers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics, developed Haystack MRD™, a next generation tumor informed approach for the measurement of minimal residual disease. Haystack MRD uses an error-corrected ctDNA technology to detect down to one ctDNA molecule in a million. Haystack Oncology works with biopharmaceutical companies to advance important therapeutics to global markets, from early phase clinical development to companion diagnostics. By detecting patients with measurable disease for enrollment, and helping to identify early treatment response and disease clearance as endpoints for treatment efficacy, Haystack Oncology can accelerate and improve the efficiency of clinical development programs. Haystack Oncology testing is CLIA certified in the US and is available for biopharmaceutical clinical development in laboratories located in Baltimore, Maryland, Hamburg, Germany and Helsinki, Finland. Learn more at haystackoncology.com.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics empowers people to take action to improve health outcomes. Derived from the world's largest database of clinical lab results, our diagnostic insights reveal new avenues to identify and treat disease, inspire healthy behaviors and improve health care management. Quest annually serves one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States, and our nearly 50,000 employees understand that, in the right hands and with the right context, our diagnostic insights can inspire actions that transform lives. www.QuestDiagnostics.com.

About Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC

Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC (AFT) is a research organization that develops and conducts cancer clinical trials, working closely with the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology scientific investigators and institutional member network, research collaborators, and non-NCI funding sources. AFT seeks to fulfill the vision of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology to reduce the impact of cancer on people by uniting a broad community of scientists and clinicians from many disciplines committed to discovering, validating and disseminating effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of cancer. To learn more about AFT studies, visit AllianceFoundationTrials.org.