To help accelerate research into new treatments for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), US-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is partnering with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) – part of the National Institutes of Health – on the myeloMATCH (Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice) precision medicine umbrella trial.

By testing patients’ bone marrow and blood for certain genetic biomarkers using Thermo Fisher’s next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, clinical sites can more quickly match patients with an appropriate clinical trial that tests a treatment designed to target specific mutations present in the samples.

AML is an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and blood and is one of the most common types of leukemia. Because it can advance quickly with a five-year survival rate of only 30-40% for people under age 60, rapid detection and effective treatment are essential to improve patient outcomes. Further, clinical practice guidelines note the importance of rapid genetic analysis to identify biomarkers that may help match patients with optimal treatments based on their unique cancer profile.

myeloMATCH will be open in the U.S. and Canadian sites of the NCI National Clinical Trials Network, which includes more than 2,200 sites. Further, the NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis has developed cooperative research and development agreements with many pharmaceutical companies that will provide different drugs to support myeloMATCH. By conducting multiple treatment sub-studies specific to genomic types, myeloMATCH may help fuel the development of promising new therapies.