Post-ESMO review: How molecular residual disease testing is transforming cancer care and drug development

The Signatera ctDNA molecular residual disease (MRD) assay is transforming cancer management and increasingly integrated into physician-patient shared decision-making across tumor types and practice settings. Over 40% of US oncologists are ordering Signatera quarterly, with more than 200,000 patients tested to date.

Signatera now has more than 85 peer-reviewed publications across cancer types. Over 20 ongoing studies are prospectively using Signatera for stratification or enrollment and treatment response monitoring, including several randomized Phase 3 trials, with potentially practice-changing implications.

Most recently, interim data from the GALAXY arm of the CIRCULATE-JP study, published in Nature Medicine and presented at ESMO 2024, included 2,240 individuals with stage II to IV or relapsed colorectal cancer (CRC) following curative intent surgery. Signatera-positive patients had a 36-month overall survival (OS) rate of approximately 72%, compared to 96% for Signatera-negative patients. This marks the first time a prospective study has demonstrated an overall survival signal in CRC associated with ctDNA.

Join us for a review of the current state of the MRD field, how the Signatera assay is influencing care, and where more effective therapies are needed for high-risk populations.

Topics include:

How clinicians and patients are using Signatera to inform care decisions
Patient feedback on the impact of Signatera results
Key clinical data insights from publications and conferences
Clinical trial designs and opportunities, including matching of real-world patients to trials

Minetta C. Liu

Chief Medical Officer, Oncology, Natera

Dr. Minetta Liu, MD leads Natera’s clinical and scientific affairs in oncology, primarily to prove the clinical utility of Signatera™ and incorporate it into standard medical practice across tumor types.

Before Natera, Dr. Liu served as Professor of Oncology and Chair of Research in the Department of Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. In her role at Mayo, she also held a dual appointment in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and served as co-leader of the Genomics in Action Strategic Priority for the Center of Individualized Medicine.

Dr. Liu has a wealth of experience in developing blood-based biomarkers to predict treatment benefit and outcomes in solid tumors. She has also focused on developing novel therapeutics to improve survival, particularly in breast cancer.

She chaired the Circulating Biomarker Working Group of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, co-chaired the Correlative Science Working Group, and led several multi-institutional clinical trials through the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium.

Dr. Liu received her B.A. from Princeton University, her M.D. from Jefferson Medical College, and completed her residency and hematology/oncology fellowship at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Vasily Aushev

Principal Scientist (RWD/RWE, Bioinformatics), Natera

Vasily Aushev is a Principal Scientist at Natera, leading real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) initiatives in oncology. With over four years at Natera, Vasily has been part of the translational medicine group, leveraging his expertise in cancer biology, genomics, and bioinformatics to support numerous Signatera publications and posters in collaboration with academic partners.

Before joining Natera, Vasily held research positions at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). He holds a PhD in Oncology and Cancer Biology and a Master’s in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

moderator

John Simmons

Global Vice President, Biopharma, Natera

John Simmons currently leads oncology biopharma partnerships at Natera. Before joining Natera, John completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and served as Vice President of Translational Medicine at Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx). He received his PhD in Tumor Biology from Georgetown University.