This summer, the Johns Hopkins spinout THRIVE raised an extra $257M for clinical trials of liquid biopsy cfDNA tests to detect occult cancers (here).
Today's emails brought me an invitation from QUEST to enroll in the THRIVE-ASCEND LBx trial, a large study to screen healthy people for possible occult cancers. Screen shot below.
Helpfully, since this is a cancer study, the fine print notes that "This email is being sent to a generalized audience and is not intended to imply the recipient has any specific illness, diagnosis, or condition."
The trial code-named ASCEND is NCT04213326 at Clinicaltrials.gov. The full name is "Detecting Cancers Earlier Through Elective Plasma-Based Cancer SEEK Testing," making this an example of a full disconnect between the trial code's name and the clinical description. Online, the trial is described as comparing "1000 subjects with known or suspected cancer" and 2000 subjects with no known cancer, all 50 or older. Stating, "This is a prospective, observational study of 1,000 subjects with known or suspected cancer confirmed through pathology reports and/or clinical/radiographic data and 2,000 subjects with no known cancer. De-identified blood samples and clinical data will be collected from subjects to validate a classification algorithm for a new version of the CancerSEEK assay." The blood sample is 60 ml. This could be an updated study under the ASCEND moniker, though. The Clinical Trial.gov version I found was to run November 2019 to April 2020.
