Caris Life Sciences, Irving, Texas, is now offering the 67-gene CancerNext-Expanded panel, from Ambry Genetics, Aliso Viejo, Calif, for evaluating a patient’s hereditary risks for cancer. When combined with Caris’ somatic (tumor) tests, which analyze a cancer’s detailed molecular makeup, the test will enable Caris to provide patients and their healthcare providers better information to more accurately diagnose and treat cancer.

“We are committed to providing clinicians with high-quality information they can use to inform treatment decisions,” says David D. Halbert, founder, chairman, and CEO of Caris Life Sciences. “By partnering with Ambry Genetics to better inform patient care, we are able to provide clinicians a greater ability to learn about a cancer’s molecular composition.”

David D. Halbert, Caris Life Sciences.

David D. Halbert, Caris Life Sciences.

Caris currently offers clinicians Caris Molecular Intelligence, a proprietary, comprehensive tumor profiling approach that assesses DNA, RNA, and proteins unique to an individual’s cancer in order to reveal a molecular blueprint as a guide to more precise and individualized treatment decisions.

Through the partnership, Caris will now offer Ambry’s CancerNext-Expanded hereditary cancer panel, which analyzes 67 genes associated with an increased hereditary risk of cancer, including brain, breast, colon, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, renal, and uterine cancers. Its comprehensive testing identifies inherited risks for cancer in order for clinicians to accurately diagnose, treat, and manage cancer risks for each patient’s needs.

Photo ElliotAaron-cropped

Aaron Elliott, PhD, Ambry Genetics.

“To best diagnose and treat cancer, clinicians must understand whether patients have mutations in genes associated with an increased risk for hereditary cancer,” says Aaron Elliott, PhD, CEO of Ambry Genetics. “Caris’ molecular tests combined with Ambry’s germline genetic testing give clinicians the most comprehensive, clinically relevant molecular profile on the market to guide treatment and management.”

The combined Caris and Ambry testing is now available nationwide.

“Being able to simultaneously conduct comprehensive tumor genomic testing and multigene germline sequencing is invaluable, especially for sick patients at the beginning of their cancer journey,” says Michael J. Hall, MD, chair of the department of clinical genetics at Fox Chase Cancer Center. “This is information I can immediately begin using for my patients to more accurately diagnose them and to better individualize their treatments.”

For more information, visit Ambry Genetics and Caris Life Sciences.

Featured image: Cancer cells imaged with a fluorescence microscope. Image © Caleb Foster, courtesy Dreamstime (ID 100191785 ).