Third Rock Ventures participates in a first round of funding to support Thrive’s developmental blood test CancerSEEK.
Thrive Earlier Detection was founded by researchers from Johns Hopkins University to commercialize CancerSEEK, a blood test designed to detect genetic mutations in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and protein markers associated with eight common types of cancer at the early stage of the disease. Machine learning is used in conjunction with the blood test to localize the organ of origin of the cancer. Thrive’s goal is to establish CancerSEEK as one of the primary and routine screening tools used, along with other methods, such as mammography and colonoscopy.
Furthering this mission, CancerSEEK was granted breakthrough device status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). So far, it as been evaluated in a retrospective study involving 1,005 patients with non-metastatic, clinically detected cancers of the ovary, liver, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, colorectum, lung or breast. The test was found to give positive results in a median of 70% of the eight cancer types, with a sensitivity ranging from 69% to 98% for the detection of ovary, liver, stomach, pancreas and esophageal cancer, for which no existing screening tests are currently available. In addition, identification of the organ of cancer origin was achieved at >99%, and the test correctly identified a small number of localized anatomic sites in a median of 83% of the patients.
CancerSEEK is presently being evaluated in a large prospective study that involves 10,000 healthy women aged 65–75 with no prior cancer history. Results are expected from this trial in 2020.
Thrive just received significant financial support for further development of CancerSEEK, raising $110 million in Series A financing led by Third Rock Ventures and including Section32, Casdin Capital, Biomatics Capital, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, The Invus Group, Exact Sciences $EXAS, Cowin Venture, Camden Partners, Gamma 3 LLC and others.
However, Thrive does have competition. The company Grail, a spinout from DNA sequencing company Illumina, has also received FDA breakthrough device status for its multi-cancer detection blood test, which evaluates DNA sequences to identify sites of methylation, an epigenetic change that indicates the presence of cancer. This test is being evaluated in three clinical trials that are expected to enroll a total of 165,000 people. To date, Grail has raised $1.6 billion in funding. Guardant Health and Biocept are also in the process of developing liquid biopsy tests.