ASC Oncology expands into Switzerland and the United Kingdom and makes the Reverse Clinical Engineering® testing procedures easily accessible to oncologists and patients
Berlin, August 13, 2021 -With the foundation of ASC Oncology Schweiz AG, cancer patients with malignant solid tumors and their treating oncologists can now also use a new test procedure in Switzerland. With the help of the Reverse Clinical Engineering® method, it is possible to test which drugs are likely to work and which are not, using the patient's individual tumor model when drug therapy is indicated.
Cancer is one of those diseases that are unpredictable, malignant and, despite high research efforts, not yet conquered. At the same time, prescribed chemotherapy fails in about half of all cancer patients worldwide. Therefore, ASC Oncology has developed a method over many years of research that enables oncologists to offer their patients the optimal therapy from the very beginning. Based on a tissue sample of the patient's tumor taken during a biopsy or tumor surgery, "copies" of the tumor, so-called organoids, are grown in the laboratory. In the next step, various cancer drugs are tested on the organoids to determine their efficacy. The Reverse Clinical Engineering® test procedure takes place in the laboratory and thus outside the patient's body, without side effects and before the start of therapy. If the intended drug then shows no effect on the model, ASC Oncology can subsequently include other cancer drugs in the test. On the one hand, this prevents a probably unsuccessful therapy from unnecessarily burdening the patient, and on the other hand, it can significantly improve the chance of a therapeutic response.
Tumor researcher Dr. Christian Regenbrecht, co-developer of the Reverse Clinical Engineering® method, emphasizes the benefits for patients and treating oncologists: "Better decisions can be made on the basis of information. That's why our goal is to empower patients to make the best informed decisions possible. ASC Oncology sees itself as a team player in this, providing support to oncologists and patients through the application of Reverse Clinical Engineering® diagnostics to enable an important step towards personalized medicine together."
The classical system therapy according to which cancer patients are treated today is not always successful: about 50% of the so-called first-line therapies show effect, but with the subsequent second and third therapy the response rate is increasingly lower. ASC Oncology's method is therefore an important component of precision medicine, enabling the best possible therapy to be offered from the outset by tailoring the therapy to the individual patient. This can increase patients' quality of life and, in the best case scenario, save lives.”
In addition, ASC Oncology started a cooperation with Kings College London August 2021. Together with Professor Dr. Tony Ng (Joint Head of School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Richard Dimbleby Professor of Cancer Research, King's College London and Professor of Molecular Oncology at University College London (UCL) Cancer Institute) and his team will make the Reverse Clinical Engineering® test procedure available to patients in the UK .To this end, ASC Oncology will have its own laboratory space in the Innovation Hub of the state-of-the-art Cancer Centre at Guy's Hospital.
