Abstract 1675: Analytical validation of MSI High detection with GuardantOMNI
Authors: Zhao Jing , Artyomenko Alexander , Artieri Carlo , Latham John , Fairclough Stephen R. , Barbacioru Catalin , Helman Elena , Strickler John , Chudova Darya , Lanman Richard , Talasaz AmirAli 
Published: August 2019

Background: Late stage therapy selection is advancing beyond the detection of classical driver alterations (SNV, Indel, CNV, Fusion) to the use of aggregate biomarkers comprising combinations of SNVs, Indels, and fusions, that reflect the underlying mutational process, indicate the cellular dysfunction, and suggest the neoantigen signature. GuardantOMNI (OMNI), is a highly sensitive 500-gene cfDNA sequencing test designed to detect primary somatic mutations as well as aggregate biomarkers including TMB and DDR pathway defects. The newest version of OMNI introduces MSI biomarker detection, which is an indication for the first FDA-approved pan-cancer therapy. Here we present the first analytical validation study of OMNI MSI-H detection.

Methods: Probabilistic models for MSI detection were designed to interrogate instability across &gt;1300 loci, differentiating PCR and sequencing induced artifacts from true biological signals using molecular barcoding as implemented in the Guardant digital sequencing platform. Cut-offs were selected based on the analysis of the training healthy donor cohort and locked prior to validation. Analytical performance was assessed using pre-characterized cell lines, cancer-free donor-samples, and clinical patient samples. Qualitative and quantitative orthogonal confirmation was provided by next-generation sequencing (NGS) and published information.

Results: 350 samples were processed for this study, using both 5ng and 30ng cfDNA input levels, and all samples passed sequencing QC metrics established prior to testing. Cell line-based dilution studies performed in triplicate spanning 5ng and 30ng input range as well as in silico simulation demonstrated 95% limit of detection (LoD) at 0.1% Analysis of 121 healthy donor and 16 MSS advanced cancer patient samples identified no false positives (FP). In 240 patient samples with orthogonal confirmation of MSI status from tissue or panel NGS, GuardantOMNI demonstrated 100% analytic sensitivity (3/3) and 100% analytic specificity (237/237) with a PPV of 1 and and NPV 1. Retrospective analysis of 2000+ clinical samples detected MSI high in 16% of colorectal cancers, 4% of prostate cancers, and 0.6% of non-small cell lung cancers.

Conclusions: Here we have demonstrated the performance of MSI-H detection with GuardantOMNI (OMNI), which has the potential to accelerate clinical trial enrollment, research and discovery with a single, non-invasive blood sample.

Citation Format: Jing Zhao, Alexander Artyomenko, Carlo Artieri, John Latham, Stephen R. Fairclough, Catalin Barbacioru, Elena Helman, John Strickler, Darya Chudova, Richard Lanman, AmirAli Talasaz. Analytical validation of MSI High detection with GuardantOMNI [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1675.