Cancer does not stop at borders – and neither does an approach to personalized cancer therapy developed in Berlin
Across borders, cancer is one of those diseases that is unpredictable, malignant and, despite high research efforts, not yet conquered. About 19.3 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer every year, and at the same time the prescribed chemotherapy fails in about half of all cancer patients. It is therefore essential to make advances in personalized cancer treatment available to doctors and cancer patients around the globe as quickly as possible and in a responsible manner.
Therefore, the Berlin-based biotech company ASC Oncology GmbH (“ASC Oncology”) thinks beyond borders and is committed to the international use of Reverse Clinical Engineering® test procedure. The possibility that patients and oncologists know, based on scientific data, which drug is likely to work for an individual patient before a drug therapy is started should become a matter of course worldwide.
As an important next step in this journey, ASC Oncology today proudly announces its strategic partnership with Tamer Group. Through their century-long history, associated healthcare experience and the Tamer Group’s large network in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa, the Reverse Clinical Engineering® testing procedure will thus become accessible to many patients as an important approach to personalized cancer therapy.
Tumor researcher Dr. Christian Regenbrecht, co-developer of the Reverse Clinical Engineering® procedure, emphasizes the benefits of the new partnership for cancer patients and treating physicians: “For three years, we have been using the testing procedure to support oncologists and patients in optimally individualising cancer treatment. With Reverse Clinical Engineering®, we test different drug treatment options before starting therapy and thus find the therapy option that is most likely to have an effect on the individual patient’s tumor. Outside the patient’s body and thus without side effects. This is a key step on the road to establishing personalized cancer therapy, which we are now taking together with the Tamer Group.”
Reverse Clinical Engineering® enables oncologists to offer their patients effective therapy from the outset. Using a tissue sample of the patient’s tumor taken during a biopsy or tumor surgery, 3D copies of the tumor, called organoids, are grown in the laboratory. In the next step, various cancer drugs are tested on these organoids to determine their effectiveness on the individual patient’s tumor. In this way, on the one hand, a probably unsuccessful therapy can be prevented from unnecessarily burdening the cancer patient and, on the other hand, the chance of a therapeutic response can be significantly improved.
