A patient advocacy-led clinical research study aims to determine if patients who have rare tumors can benefit from matched molecular therapy based on the results of their genomic profiling. Patients with neuroendocrine tumors and unknown primaries may be eligible for this study.
Sponsored by the TargetCancer Foundation, in collaboration with Foundation Medicine Inc., the TCF-001 TRACK (Target Rare Cancer Knowledge) Study uses next-generation sequencing to develop a comprehensive genomic profile of each participant’s tumor as well as their plasma circulating cell-free DNA (blood).
TargetCancer then presents cases with genomic findings to a virtual molecular tumor board, which will analyze the findings and provide a written report to a participant’s treating physician on recommended treatments and/or relevant clinical trials. Each participant’s treating physicians make all treatment decisions for their patients; those treatments, and the responses to those treatments, are tracked during the study to link molecularly formed treatments to specific patient outcomes.
TRACK is a remote study, meaning that patients can fully enroll and participate in the study without any requirement to travel or change their treating physician.
“TRACK provides participating patients who have rare cancer and their physicians with personalized, actionable information to potentially inform treatment,” says Jim Palma, executive director of the TargetCancer Foundation. “Simultaneously, TRACK generates critical genomic data to drive a better understanding of often-overlooked rare cancers.”
Inclusion Criteria
TRACK aims to enroll 400 participants. Among the inclusion criteria for the TRACK study, participants must:
- Be 18 years of age or older, living in the United States
- Have a rare solid tumor or lymphoma (fewer than 6 cases per 100,000 per year)
- Be willing to provide existing archived (collected within the last 18 months) and/or newly collected tissue as well as blood samples for genomic profiling
- Have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-2
Other criteria apply to determine a participant’s eligibility for the study.
The principal investigators on the study are Razelle Kurzrock, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center and Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine Center; Vivek Subbiah, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and Shumei Kato, MD, of the University of California, San Diego.
For additional information about the TRACK study, contact Mary Oster at the TargetCancer Foundation.
Next Steps
Additional information on the study can be found at clinicaltrials.gov. Interested participants should talk to their treatment team about eligibility and determine if the study is aligned with their treatment goals.