Qiagen and Clinical Genomics, a private company developing evidence-based diagnostic tools for colorectal cancer, have implemented the PAXgene Blood ccfDNA Tube sample collection in Clinical Genomics’ Colvera colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence assay.

Colvera, an integrated liquid biopsy solution, is designed to enable easy and accurate monitoring for recurrence of colorectal cancer with a simple blood test.

Clinical Genomics and Qiagen have demonstrated that PAXgene ccfDNA yield and Colvera assay performance is equivalent to the performance from blood samples collected in EDTA tubes, spun down to plasma and frozen within eight hours of collection, whereby the PAXgene process demonstrated a significantly superior ease of use and robustness.

Clinical Genomics is the sole U.S. provider of Colvera, a PCR-based assay that detects hypermethylated BCAT1 and IKZF1 DNA in the blood of patients. Colvera has been demonstrated to detect more than twice the number of CRC recurrence cases compared to the current guidelines-recommended blood test.

PAXgene technology offers highly integrated and automated solutions for the collection, stabilization and purification of circulating cell-free DNA from blood samples. It allows whole blood to be drawn and stored at cooled and ambient temperatures for up to seven days before samples are processed and tested for the presence of circulating cell-free DNA.