Strata Oncology, a precision oncology company, today announced five leading healthcare systems have joined the Strata Precision Oncology Network™ (Network). Launched in February of 2017, and led by Strata Oncology, the Network is advancing precision oncology by providing advanced cancer patients routine tumor profiling and matching to a portfolio of biomarker-matched pharma-sponsored clinical trials.

University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Christiana Care’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, Kaiser Permanente-Northern California, Kettering Health Network, and Ochsner Health System join the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center and Metro Minnesota Community Oncology Research Consortium as members of the Network.

Members leverage the StrataNGS™ test, an 87-gene assay that sequences both DNA and RNA, to identify trial candidates for targeted therapies. StrataNGS is available to all advanced solid tumor and lymphoma patients at no-cost through the Strata Trial, a nationwide observational study providing tumor sequencing for 100,000 patients with advanced cancer.

“We are pleased that this clinical trial will allow us to offer routine, no-cost tumor sequencing to patients with advanced cancer,” said Mark E. Burkard, MD, PhD, Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin, “By addressing key barriers to patient participation, we hope to enable increased access to precision medicine clinical trials.”

Working to accelerate the development of precision medicines, Strata Oncology partners with leading cancer centers to collectively create a large, concentrated and well characterized patient population to substantially accelerate trial enrollment, a key bottleneck in precision oncology drug development. With the addition of these 5 cancer centers and their affiliate hospitals, routine tumor profiling through the Strata Trial will be available at more than 50 hospitals across the Network, covering 70,000 analytic cancer cases per year. Strata Oncology’s growing portfolio of partnered therapeutic studies is available to eligible patients at the primary cancer center in each network.

“With the addition of new partners to the Network, we are well on our way to our goal of providing tumor profiling to 25,000 advanced cancer patients annually,” said Dan Rhodes, Ph.D., CEO of Strata Oncology. “We are proud to work with these forward-thinking centers to institutionalize tumor profiling and dramatically expand patient access to precision oncology.”

“This partnership will give our patients the opportunity to participate in precision medicine clinical trials without leaving the state of Delaware,” said Nicholas J. Petrelli, MD, Bank of America endowed medical director of Christiana Care’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute. “Tumor profiling is becoming the state-of-the-art and by collaborating with the unique strengths of Strata, the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute will continue to stay on the cutting edge of cancer treatment and prevention.”