Study to evaluate clinical utility of ctDNA-guided treatment escalation for CRC patients; results expected to read out in mid-2024.
Natera, Inc., a global leader in cell-free DNA testing, announced the completion of enrollment to the randomized, double-blind phase III ALTAIR clinical trial (JapicCTI-205363/NCT04457297). ALTAIR is the circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)-guided treatment escalation arm of the CIRCULATE-Japan adaptive trial platform evaluating the utility of the Signatera molecular residual disease (MRD) test in patients with stage II-IV resectable colorectal cancer (CRC). CIRCULATE-Japan also includes the observational GALAXY study and the randomized phase III VEGA trial for ctDNA-guided treatment de-escalation. The company expects to share primary results from ALTAIR in mid-2024.
The ALTAIR investigators have met their goal to enroll >240 patients who tested ctDNA-positive at any time within 2 years after surgery, but with no clinical or radiographic evidence of disease. ctDNA-positive patients are randomized to placebo or TAS-102 (trifluridine/tipiracil), a therapy commonly used for patients with metastatic CRC. The primary endpoint of the study is disease-free survival. ctDNA clearance is a secondary endpoint.
“In this study, we aim to establish the utility of Signatera in the adjuvant and surveillance settings by showing we can improve outcomes for patients with detectable ctDNA before it becomes evident on imaging,” said Dr. Takayuki Yoshino of the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan and primary investigator of the CIRCULATE-Japan trial. “Randomized studies such as ALTAIR can help provide compelling evidence to support the use of ctDNA testing as a tool to guide treatment decisions in CRC.”
Completion of enrollment to ALTAIR follows the release of multiple new datasets in 2023 highlighting the clinical utility of Signatera in CRC. In January, the results of >1,000 patients (>7,200 plasma time points) from GALAXY were published in Nature Medicine, demonstrating the ability of Signatera to identify patients with stage II-IV resectable CRC who are at an increased risk of recurrence and to predict who is most likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Similar results were reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in June 2023 with additional data from an expanded cohort of >2,000 patients (>3,800 plasma time points) from the same study.
“The completion of enrollment to ALTAIR marks a significant milestone that will build on recent data from the GALAXY study and bring us one step closer to a future of ctDNA-guided cancer care,” said Dr. Minetta Liu, chief medical officer of oncology at Natera. “We are proud to partner with our collaborators from CIRCULATE-Japan to accelerate precision medicine and transform care for patients with resectable CRC.”
SOURCE: BusinessWire