SOPHiA GENETICS Announces First Homologous Recombination Deficiency (HRD) Customer in Canada

University of Saskatchewan's (USask) Advanced Diagnostics Research Laboratory will use SOPHiA DDM™ Platform to advance research on ovarian cancer care

BOSTON and ROLLE, Switzerland, March 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SOPHiA GENETICS (Nasdaq: SOPH), a cloud-native software company and a leader in data-driven medicine, today announced the University of Saskatchewan (USask) as its first HRD customer in Canada. USask will implement the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform for use in its cutting-edge clinical trial, which aims to substantially improve the quality of life for ovarian cancer patients through expanded genetic testing. This is the first clinical trial in Canada designed to improve ovarian cancer treatment decisions and inspire guideline changes to increase access to advanced testing.

Ovarian cancer is the most fatal gynecologic cancer; only about 45 percent of patients in Canada survive more than five years after diagnosis.¹ The current standard for ovarian cancer tumor testing in Canada tests only for the absence or presence of a BRCA mutation; this identifies only a fraction of patients with genetic changes in their tumor.² The latest trial from USask will use additional genetic diagnostic tools, and the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform, to inform oncologists on a wider spread of genes and potential mutations, which can be indicative of whether a patient may respond better to a targeted therapy rather than chemotherapy. 

"Using genetic testing to uncover tumor mutations and support treatment planning for cancer patients is a perfect example of precision medicine in practice. It's exactly what we at SOPHiA GENETICS are working so hard to make available to clinician researchers around the world," said John Carey, Managing Director, NORAM, SOPHiA GENETICS. "The research being led by the USask Advanced Diagnostics Research Laboratory (ADRL) team to advance genomic analysis of patient tumors has the potential to drastically improve the lives of thousands throughout Canada, and we are honored our SOPHiA DDM™ Platform is a pivotal part of that research."

The SOPHiA DDM™ Comprehensive Profiling Solution coupled with SOPHiA GENETICS' proprietary deep learning algorithm, GIInger™, will provide USask with a widespread look at potential mutations for each patient. This testing will provide the researchers with detailed genomic information, including predicted treatment response, in an expedited timeframe using SOPHiA GENETICS' advanced AI and proprietary technology to analyze and interpret raw NGS data and provide reliable and fast results. USask's clinical trial aims to leverage these findings to enable providers to create a personalized treatment plan with the goal of patients no longer undergoing treatments that may not help control their cancer and that worsen their quality of life.

"Our clinical trial has the potential to create a paradigm shift for ovarian cancer care across Canada, helping to base treatment decisions in data to provide the most favorable patient outcomes," said Laura Hopkins, M.D., Saskatchewan Cancer Agency Gynecologic Oncologist and Co-lead of the clinical trial. 

USask molecular pathologist and director of the ADRL John DeCoteau, M.D., added, "Our hope is that our research will help create increased access to this type of testing across Canada to provide patients with additional treatment choices and more personalized care."

HRD is caused by a cell's impaired ability to repair DNA double-stranded breaks through the homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway; it is an important predictor of tumor response to certain treatment options. HRD is linked with the development of several cancers³ including advanced ovarian cancer, and is the most prevalent alteration in ovarian cancer, with approximately half of all newly diagnosed patients having HRD-positive tumors.⁴

For more information on SOPHiA GENETICS, visit SOPHiAGENETICS.com or connect on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. 

About SOPHiA GENETICS 
SOPHiA GENETICS (Nasdaq: SOPH) is a software company dedicated to establishing the practice of data-driven medicine as the standard of care for life sciences research. It is the creator of the SOPHiA DDM™ Platform, a cloud-native platform capable of analyzing data and generating insights from complex multimodal data sets and different diagnostic modalities. The SOPHiA DDM™ Platform and related solutions, products and services are currently used by a broad network of hospital, laboratory, and biopharma institutions globally. For more information, visit SOPHiAGENETICS.COM, or connect on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Where others see data, we see answers. 

SOPHiA GENETICS products are for Research Use Only and not for use in diagnostic procedures unless specified otherwise. The information in this press release is about products that may or may not be available in different countries and, if applicable, may or may not have received approval or market clearance by a governmental regulatory body for different indications for use. Please contact [email protected] to obtain the appropriate product information for your country of residence.

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¹ https://cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-types/ovarian/prognosis-and-survival/survival-statistics#:~:text=Net%20survival&text=It%20is%20used%20to%20give,for%20at%20least%205%20years.
² https://news.usask.ca/media-release-pages/2023/usask-launches-world-first-clinical-trial-to-improve-ovarian-cancer-treatment.php
³ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10342032/#:~:text=According%20to%20The%20Cancer%20Genome,clinical%20benefits%20of%20PARP%20inhibitors.
⁴ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923753421048286

SOURCE SOPHiA GENETICS