Testing underway for new technology for cancer fight

Theralink Technologies announced that it has begun the testing of its first patients with the Theralink’s Reverse Phase Protein Array technology.

RPPA testing measures the direct activation state for dozens of drug targets at once, potentially providing oncologists with key information about the patient’s specific tumor. Theralink’s unique assay is the only commercial LDT assay on the market that can measure the activation/phosphorylation state of dozens of drug targets directly from a tumor biopsy.

“We are pleased to have launched Theralink’s RPPA testing with Dr. Matthew Schwartz, who is a radiation oncologist with Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada,” Theralink President and CEO Dr. Mick Ruxin said. “With our unique molecular profiling assay, that goes beyond a genomics-only approach, physicians throughout the country … will have access to potentially critically missing and actionable information to help them make time-sensitive treatment decisions for their patients.”

The initial use for the Theralink assay for breast cancer is for patients with Stage III-IV triple negative breast cancer, Stage III-IV HER2+ breast cancer, Stage III-IV ER+/HER2- breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer and inflammatory breast cancer

Theralink is now accepting patients’ breast cancer tumor biopsies from all physicians across the U.S. except those physicians located in New York and California, which will be accepted upon Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certification from those two states.

Theralink’s patented RPPA testing is designed to provide new protein and phosphoprotein biomarkers through the direct and quantitative measurement of the expression levels of a protein drug target and pathways surrounding it. This testing gives physicians data-driven support to help them make decisions and help them enable new predictive protein biomarker-based therapy selection.

Theralink can measure the activation state of key drug targets and signaling pathways within a microscopic quantity of tumor sample.

“The Theralink assay for breast cancer may reveal therapeutic options for oncologists and in turn, may provide better outcomes for breast cancer patients,” Ruxin said. “Theralink’s testing is initially for breast cancer, but we plan to offer the Theralink assay for numerous other cancer types in the near future.”