Ibex Medical Analytics announced an agreement with AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, for the development, clinical validation and early adoption of an AI-powered product to aid pathologists with an accurate and reproducible assessment of HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) scoring in breast cancer patients. Scoring of HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) protein expression in breast cancer is used to identify patients who are likely to benefit from HER2-directed therapies. Currently, pathologists routinely score HER2 in tumor samples visually using a microscope, which can be challenging in cases of low HER2 expression as scoring is subjective and may lead to varied interpretations.

Computational tools developed using Artificial Intelligence have the potential to support pathologists in accurate and objective scoring of HER2, which can help oncologists in selecting therapies that are approved for treating patients with HER2-positive or HER2-low breast cancer. Ibex's Galen™ Breast HER2 is an IHC scoring product that detects tumor areas and quantifies HER2 expression into four standard categories, 0, 1+, 2+ and 3+, based on the 2018 ASCO/CAP scoring guidelines. As part of this collaboration, Ibex will work with AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo to develop and clinically validate its HER2 IHC scoring product and generate evidence that further supports adoption of the technology.

Ibex's Galen™ Breast HER2 is an IHC scoring product that detects tumor areas and quantifies HER2 expression into four standard categories, 0, 1+, 2+ and 3+, based on the 2018 ASCO/CAP scoring guidelines. As part of this collaboration, Ibex will work with AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo to develop and clinically validate its HER2 IHC scoring product and generate evidence that further supports adoption of the technology. A multi-site validation study on Galen Breast HER2 involved a cohort of 453 breast tumors of diverse subtypes.

The study demonstrated that Galen's AI algorithm provides an accurate and automated HER2 score for pathologists and was recently presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.