Caris Precision Oncology Alliance Partners with the National Cancer Institute, Part of the National Institutes of Health, to Expand Collaborative Clinical Research Efforts

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Caris Life Sciences^® (Caris), a molecular science company developing and delivering technologies to revolutionize healthcare, announced today that the Caris Precision Oncology Alliance™ (POA) and NCI's Center for Cancer Research (CCR) will collaborate on precision medicine research initiatives. The POA is an expanding collaborative network of leading cancer centers that work together to advance cancer care and establish standards for comprehensive molecular testing that are improving patient outcomes.

As part of the collaboration, Caris will make available to NCI researchers, its suite of comprehensive molecular profiling offerings that provide detailed molecular insights across DNA (genome), RNA (transcriptome) and proteins (proteome). Caris will link molecular testing results into an electronic medical records database, creating a more complete dataset of combined patient outcomes and molecular information. Additionally, joining the POA network enables the NCI faculty and researchers to conduct clinical and translational research collaboratively across the alliance, to participate in all ongoing research activities across POA tumor groups, and to generate and publish clinical outcomes data that impacts cancer care across the United States.

"Joining Caris' POA will support NCI CCR's mission to improve the lives of all cancer patients by solving important, challenging and neglected problems in cancer research and patient care," said James L. Gulley, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Medical Oncology Service at the NCI's Center for Cancer Research. "We hope that working with Caris and other members of the POA will allow us to further advance promising innovative technologies that fuel improvements in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer."

The NCI leads the nation's research efforts to improve cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis and survivorship – while supporting 71 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers and more than 5,000 grantees across the U.S. The NCI also coordinates and supports all phases of clinical trials across 2,500 clinical trial sites nationwide, seeking the development of new and improved cancer treatments. The NCI's team of approximately 3,500 is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of 11 agencies that make up the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The NCI CCR comprises nearly 250 teams conducting basic, translational, and clinical research in the NCI intramural program—an environment supporting innovative science aimed at improving human health. CCR's clinical program is housed at the NIH Clinical Center—the world's largest hospital dedicated to clinical research.

"The NCI is a global leader in cancer innovation and therapeutics. Our comprehensive molecular technology platforms and solutions are well positioned to support the NCI's ongoing initiatives," said David D. Halbert, Chairman and CEO of Caris. "We are honored and proud to partner with the NCI, who shares our vision and commitment to improve the lives of patients through precision medicine."

NCI researchers, as well as other members of the POA have access to Caris CODEai^™, the Company's state-of-the-art informatics system and big data architecture platform. Caris CODEai is one of the largest and most comprehensive real-world, clinico-genomic databases in the world and includes Caris' extensive catalog of molecular data that is matched with cancer treatment information and clinical outcomes data for hundreds of thousands of patients.

"Access to Caris' clinico-genomic database is an excellent complement to our data capture and analysis capabilities," said Eytan Ruppin, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of the Cancer Data Science Laboratory at the NCI's Center for Cancer Research. "Understanding the underlying molecular signatures of cancer patients at a large scale greatly enhances our ability to conduct meaningful research that translates into improved patient care."

"We're delighted to have the NCI join our POA network. The NCI is the national leader in driving cancer research, advancing new cancer treatments and leading cancer prevention and early detection initiatives," said Chadi Nabhan, M.D., MBA, FACP, Chairman of the POA. "We are eager to work with NCI scientists to support cancer research across a broad spectrum of cancer types and translate that into new treatments for cancer patients. Our combined vision of mitigating barriers to innovative diagnostics in cancer care will allow better access to newer precision oncology therapeutics for more patients in the years to come."

The POA includes 55 cancer centers and academic institutions, including 24 NCI-designated cancer centers. These institutions have access to the extensive database and artificial intelligence platform within Caris to establish evidence-based standards for cancer profiling and molecular testing in oncology. Find out more about the Caris POA by visiting the Caris website at CarisLifeSciences.com/Collaboration.

About Caris Life Sciences
Caris Life Sciences^® (Caris) is a molecular science company developing and delivering technologies to revolutionize healthcare. The Company's suite of market-leading molecular profiling offerings assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular blueprint that helps patients, physicians and researchers improve outcomes and save lives.

As the pioneer in precision medicine, Caris is ushering in a new era of cancer care with blood-based monitoring for patients before treatment, during treatment and after treatment. Currently available within Caris' Precision Oncology Alliance, Caris' pan-cancer, circulating nucleic acids sequencing (cNAS) assay combines comprehensive molecular analysis (Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing from blood) and serial monitoring - making it the most powerful liquid biopsy assay ever developed.

Caris is also advancing precision medicine through advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms. Leveraging the Company's proprietary AI analytics engine, DEAN™, across its extensive catalog of molecular intelligence and clinical outcomes data, Caris is actively developing a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer in ways never before possible. This information provides an unmatched resource to help physicians better identify and predict patient response to therapy, as well as support researchers and biopharmaceutical companies derive unique insights for research development, clinical trials and target identification.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Caris has offices in Phoenix, New York, Denver, and Basel, Switzerland. Caris provides services throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and other international markets. To learn more, please visit CarisLifeSciences.com or follow us on Twitter (@CarisLS).

Caris Media Contact:                                                                                    
Allison Kreutzjans                                                                               
Edelman                                                                                             
[email protected]                                                                         
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