The mutational profiling of tumours requires complex, invasive and expensive procedures but is rapidly becoming essential for an efficient and adequate provision of care for cancer patients, especially when the disease has already advanced to metastatic conditions, in which the identification of tumour biomarkers is relevant to identify the best targeted therapy. However, access to tumour tissue remains a limiting factor for the assessment of biomarkers, and mounting evidence suggests that may even be inadequate to capture the clonal heterogeneity that often drives resistance. The assessment of circulating biomarkers is rapidly gaining ground as a non-invasive alternative that offers the additional possibility of serially monitoring disease evolution and the potential to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the tumour genetic heterogeneity. However, the current development trajectory for large cfDNA tests is heavily reliant on costly, high throughput centralized sequencing and appears ill-suited for European common practice.
The oncNGS PCP aims at developing an integrated solution for predictive, prognostic and diagnostic analysis in liquid biopsies of solid tumours (including appropriate haematological indications) based on NGS technology.
This PCP tackles the common global unmet need in oncology to profile multiple tumours at the molecular level in the broadest possible way, promoting an economically sustainable and de-centralised model that allows a secure and transparent access to sensitive data. All partners in this consortium do agree that they face a common challenge in providing ‘the best NGS tests, for all solid and lymphoid tumours, forever’. They agree that a commonly identified procurement meets a need that is shared by all procurers in the Buyers Group of the project that forms the object of the here proposed PCP procurement ‘oncNGS’.
More information regarding the goal of the oncNGS PCP and the PCP Challenge can be found in Annex 2 – Challenge Brief, as well as the technical and functional specifications.