February 2020—Karius announced that JAMA Oncology published a clinical study showing that the Karius test detected bloodstream infections before the onset of clinical symptoms in high-risk pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory leukemia (Goggin KP, et al. Epub ahead of print Dec. 19, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.4120). The study was performed by researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Of the 47 pediatric patients enrolled in the study, 12 patients developed a total of 19 bloodstream infections, and samples for evaluation of predictive diagnosis were available for 16 episodes. The Karius test detected a bloodstream infection in 75 percent of cases (12/16) as early as three days before patients became symptomatic.
The Karius test is a noninvasive blood test that uses next-generation sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA to rapidly detect more than 1,400 bacteria, DNA viruses, fungi, and parasites. The test is primarily used to detect specific causative pathogens in complicated pneumonia, cardiovascular infections, and infections in immunocompromised patients.
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