AZ and Owkin partner on AI to speed up BRCA testing

Testing for BRCA mutations linked to breast and ovarian cancers could become easier and more accessible with the help of artificial intelligence, potentially allowing earlier treatment.

A partnership between AI specialist Owkin and drugmaker AstraZeneca has been formed to find tools that can be applied to digitised pathology slides, acting as a 'pre-screen' for BRCA mutations (BRCAm) that can then be confirmed with a regular genetic test.

The germline BRCA (gBRCA) pre-screen programme has grown out of Owkin's ongoing collaboration with Gustave Roussy and the Centre Léon Bérard through PortrAIt, a French consortium to accelerate precision medicine through AI-enabled digital pathology.

gBRCA are inherited from one or both biological parents, and approximately one in 20 patients with breast cancer carries a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. On average, a woman with one of these mutations has up to a seven in 10 chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer by age 80.

The presence of BRCAm makes patients eligible for targeted treatment with agents like PARP inhibitors, including AZ's widely-used Lynparza (olaparib), which is approved for a range of BRCA-mutated cancers.

Guidelines recommend BRCA testing to check for eligibility, but this is not always consistently offered to patients and implementation varies between countries, according to Owkin; that can result in the inadvertent exclusion of individuals who may benefit from these tests.

In addition, the typical timeline for BRCA testing can take several months and involve several healthcare professionals, from initial consultation to results, potentially delaying the start of treatment.

The gBRCA pre-screen could flag patients suitable for further testing within an hour and, if routinely used, could lead to the identification of thousands more gBRCAm HR-positive early breast cancer patients in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK by 2030, said the company in a statement.

"During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it's especially important to highlight how, by streamlining the diagnostic process for determining BRCA mutation status, we can expand access to BRCA testing and identify more gBRCAm patients more rapidly," said Owkin's chief executive, Thomas Clozel.

"Our goal is to generate the best possible medical evidence through multiple clinical studies, making genetic testing more accessible and precise, and [thereby] reduce the inequity of care by allowing more patients to benefit from tailored care."

AZ is the latest in a series of pharma groups to partner with Owkin on digital pathology projects. Last year, MSD started working with the company on AI-powered digital pathology diagnostics that could be used to identify patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumours suitable for immunotherapy, while other partners include Servier, Sanofi, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.