Cancer stem cell assay-guided chemotherapy improves survival of patients with recurrent glioblastoma in a randomized trial
Tulika Ranjan, Soma Sengupta, Michael Glantz, Richard M. Green, Alexander Yu, Dawit Aregawi, Rekha Chaudhary, Ricky Chen, Mario Zuccarello, Christine Lu‐Emerson, Hugh D. Moulding, Neil D. Belman, Jon Glass, Aaron Mammoser, Mark D. Anderson, Jagan Valluri, Nicholas F. Marko, Jason Schroeder, Steven J. Jubelirer, Frances Chow, Pier Paolo Claudio, Anthony Alberico, Seth T. Lirette, Krista L. Denning, Candace M. Howard
Abstract
Therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) contribute to the poor clinical outcomes of patients with recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) who fail standard of care (SOC) therapy. ChemoID is a clinically validated assay for identifying CSC-targeted cytotoxic therapies in solid tumors. In a randomized clinical trial (NCT03632135), the ChemoID assay, a personalized approach for selecting the most effective treatment from FDA-approved chemotherapies, improves the survival of patients with rGBM (2016 WHO classification) over physician-chosen chemotherapy. In the ChemoID assay-guided group, median survival is 12.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.2-14.7) compared with 9 months (95% CI, 4.2-13.8) in the physician-choice group (p = 0.010) as per interim efficacy analysis. The ChemoID assay-guided group has a significantly lower risk of death (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.24-0.81; p = 0.008). Results of this study offer a promising way to provide more affordable treatment for patients with rGBM in lower socioeconomic groups in the US and around the world.