Unique Partnership Seeks to Advance Precision Medicine Options for Deadly GBM Brain Tumors

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Oct 10, 2022, 12:10 ET

Shared goal is using high quality live-cell tissue to achieve patient-specific treatment, improved patient outcomes

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The ability to optimize precision medicine therapies for patients fighting aggressive and deadly brain cancers like Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) starts with quality tissue specimens with molecular integrity intact. Improvements in tissue quality can then fuel improved outcomes through patient-specific predictive response to therapies.

Neurosurgical medical device innovator NICO Corporation and Kiyatec, a leader in functional precision oncology, announced a partnership today in glioma patient care to address the well-published unmet clinical need of obtaining better tissue to achieve greater accuracy in predicting tumor response to cancer targeted agents and chemotherapies.

NICO's automated, non-ablative and non-thermal Myriadâ tissue resection device and Automated Preservation Systemâ (APS) collects and biologically preserves tissue while in the operating suite. This helps maintain the tumor microenvironment, which aids in the preservation of biological information needed for researchers and clinicians. "Our goal is to lead the way in modernizing tissue biobanking for the new molecular era by starting the process in the operating room," said Jim Pearson, president and CEO of NICO.

In this partnership, Kiyatec's CLIA-certified laboratory will receive tissue from NICO's APS and use its 3D Predict™ Glioma assay, a 7-day drug-on-tumor process, to accurately predict a tumor-specific therapeutic response before treatment begins. This will help neuro-oncologists make more informed treatment decisions for their GBM patients.

Kiyatec CEO Matthew Gevaert, PhD, said, "This initiative with NICO spotlights the importance of tissue quality as we implement new and better ways to improve outcomes for high grade glioma patients. Testing tissues with increased long-term cell viability, a benefit of tissue from NICO's APS, enhances our mission to disrupt glioma cancer care by accurately predicting patient-specific response and non-response before the start of treatment."

A recent study comparing tumor tissue collected using conventional methods to tissue collected using the NICO Myriad and APS system showed NICO's tissue was equivalent or superior in every metric tested: long-term cell viability, RNA preservation, protein preservation, and live cell count. This important advancement is a key ingredient in suppling Kiyatec with the best possible information for 3D Predict.

"Imagine better tissue leading to more certainty of what drugs will work, or even more importantly, what drugs won't work in treating one of the most treatment-resistant cancers," Pearson said. "This partnership is a step in the right direction for dramatically increasing the percentage of patients we can help with precision medicine."

Because GBM patients exhibit highly variable treatment responses in both newly diagnosed and recurrent tumors, tests measuring the response of their live cancer cells against a panel of drugs – which then determine the best patient-specific therapy options – may result in delayed disease progression. To date, drug treatments for GBM have not significantly extended patient lives beyond a few extra months. Improving patient-specific response detection through highly viable tissue samples is an opportunity to significantly improve this extension of time, Gevaert said.

About NICO Corporation

NICO is the first and only company in the world to develop and patent technologies to create an entirely new minimally invasive surgical market in neurosurgery for subcortical and skull base lesions. NICO technologies have been featured in more than 180 peer-reviewed publications with over 550 unique authors from major academic centers. Data from these publications suggest improved clinical outcomes in Minimally Invasive Parafascicular Surgery (MIPS). For more information, visit NICOneuro.com, and follow the latest news on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Kiyatec

Kiyatec is a functional precision oncology company that measures the response of each patient's live cancer cells to inform oncologists' treatment selection decisions. The company's Clinical Services offers clinical testing for high-grade glioma, and is developing assays for use in ovarian, breast, non-small cell lung cancers, and rare tumors in its CLIA-certified lab. The company's Drug Development Services works in partnership with leading biopharmaceutical companies to unlock response dynamics for their pre-clinical investigational drug candidates across the majority of solid tumor types. For more information, visit www.kiyatec.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Contact: Sue Goin
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317.402.869

SOURCE NICO Corporation