The VALUE Study - Women & Infants as the Coordinating Center

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island (WIH) will serve as the Study Center and the Laboratory Site. Enrollment Sites will secure local IRB approval, identify, consent and enroll pregnant women, ship plasma samples to WIH and collect outcome information. Eligible patients will be from one of two groups:

• The 'high risk' (HR) group - 250 women considering diagnostic testing, nearly all following a positive cell free (cf)DNA screening test. At least one case of Down syndrome should be detected for every three women enrolled, in addition to an occasional case of T18 or T13.
• The 'low risk' (LR) group - 2,400 women having conventional cfDNA screening as their primary screening test (i.e., no serum/ultrasound testing), representing the general pregnancy population. Their group risk of Down syndrome should be about 1:500. This group should have no more than 20% women age 35 and older. (Women whose conventional cfDNA screen is positive would then be eligible for a second enrollment in the 'high risk' group).

Both groups of women will be asked to provide three full 10mL Streck tubes of blood (two tubes minimum), agree to release limited clinical information, provide signed consent (including for FDA personnel to review records) and consent to have Enrollment Site staff review and report needed information from newborn/infant examination records, if requested. Identifiable patient information will be held at Enrollment Sites and not released to the Laboratory or Study Center. Sample and outcome information will be identified only by a unique study code. Individual cfDNA test results will not be returned to the Enrollment Sites, providers, or enrolled women. Enrollment Sites will receive a summary of results once the study ends.

Enrollment Sites are likely to enroll either HR or LR women, although a few sites may be able to enroll both. Both settings will have genetic counselors, physicians, research assistants or other medical staff available to identify, inform, consent and enroll women, as well as to collect and ship samples and obtain pregnancy outcome information. Staff designated as participating in the VALUE Study will be qualified to inform eligible women of the study's benefits and harms, and collect/document informed consent (which will remain at that site). The Study Center may request confirmation of consent, should it become necessary. Outcomes for HR women choosing diagnostic testing will be the results of the karyotype; those declining diagnostic testing will have newborn/infant information collected( often a newborn karyotype). In the LR population, a negative cfDNA test result will be accepted as ruling out a common autosomal trisomy, as the residual risk would be very low (<1:20,000 to < 1:50,000). For LR women with a positive cfDNA test, results of diagnostic testing would be requested. If diagnostic test results are unavailable, a review of the newborn examination/karyotype will be required for confirmation. Any conflicting results between the clinical tests and the VALUE Study results(false positive / false negative) would also require resolution that may involve review of newborn/infant records.

The VALUE Study intends to enroll approximately 2,400 LR women through as many as 8 LR Enrollment Sites associated with general risk obstetrical care practices. The 2,400 target is set to: 1) provide a reasonably confident estimate of an expected low false positive rate (e.g., 0.2%) and 2) provide sufficient numbers to exercise the testing platform over a 12 month time period. The target of 2,400 is large enough to meet both objectives and is slightly more than the largest number of euploid samples tested in any of the original NGS HR cfDNA validation studies (2011-2012). The number of trisomies detected in this LR group should be fewer than 10.An estimated 2% (48) of these LR women will have a failed/no call cfDNA test..