Press release
Natera Announces Completion of Enrollment in Randomized ACES-EMB Trial in Heart Transplantation
ACES-EMB is the first randomized-controlled trial to compare dd-cfDNA surveillance to routine biopsy in organ transplantation, highlighting the benefits of
About this update from Natera, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nACES-EMB is the first randomized-controlled trial to compare dd-cfDNA surveillance to routine biopsy in organ transplantation, highlighting the benefits of Prospera™ in organ rejection\n\n\n AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nNatera, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRA), a global leader in cell-free DNA and precision medicine, today announced the completion of enrollment in ACES-EMB, the first randomized-controlled trial evaluating whether Natera’s Prospera Heart test can replace routine invasive biopsies for rejection monitoring in heart transplant recipients.\n\n\nPositive results would support a fundamental shift in the standard of care for heart transplant recipients away from invasive tissue sampling to non-invasive molecular monitoring for the approximately 4,500 heart transplants performed annually in the United States. Biopsy procedures are costly, error-prone and put patients at risk of related complications.\n\n\nEMB is the current standard of care for post-transplant rejection surveillance but requires repeated invasive procedures. ACES-EMB is designed to assess whether molecular surveillance using a non-invasive donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA)-based approach with Natera’s Prospera test can provide comparable clinical outcomes, and potentially reduce reliance on routine biopsies.\n\n\nACES-EMB enrolled more than 300 patients across 17 U.S. transplant centers. Patients were randomized at one month after transplant to either surveillance with the Prospera test or standard EMB-based care, and they will be followed for 12 months.\n\n\n“ACES-EMB is a novel clinical trial in heart transplantation that could support the replacement of invasive, risky and expensive biopsy procedures with a simple blood test,” said Palak Shah, M.D., M.S., Inova Schar Heart and Vascular, and principal investigator for ACES-EMB. “This trial could fundamentally change the way we care for our patients, demonstrating the potential of dd-cfDNA testing as the surveillance modality of choice after transplant.”\n\n\n“Completion of enrollment in ACES-EMB marks an important milestone toward generating the level of evidence needed to inform changes in heart transplantation,” said Sangeeta Bhorade, M.D., chief medical officer of organ health at Natera. “By directly comparing dd-cfDNA surveillance to biopsy-based care in a randomized setting, we aim to show the clea...