Dr. David Sidransky Champions New Advancement in Personalized Medicine -- Of Mice and Men

Dr.  David Sidransky, an award-winning oncologist and a world leading authority in the field of molecular diagnostics, targeted therapies and individualized patient treatments, is known for his creative thinking and novel approaches to cancer treatment. Recognized for his work with the early detection of cancer as one of TIME Magazine’s top physicians and scientists to watch in 2001, Dr. Sidransky continues to be recognized as a global leader in the effort to improve cancer outcomes.

Most recently, Dr. Sidransky developed the use of a novel approach for testing the effectiveness of anti-cancer agents before they are administered to patients. This platform is based on the implantation of primary human tumors in immune deficient mice followed by growth and propagation of the resulting engraftments (Biomerk Tumorgrafts™) in a manner that closely preserves the biological characteristics of the original human tumor. To maximize the benefits of this platform, Dr. Sidransky merged his company and its Tumorgraft technology with publicly-traded Champions Biotechnology, Inc. (CSBR), and became Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Traditionally, patients are given a drug or combination of agents according to guidelines or standards of care, which, in the oncologist’s best judgment, is most likely to work based on the results of clinical studies in patients with similar tumor types. In practice, cancer patients often require several courses of drugs and regimens sequentially, that are ineffective or poorly tolerated, prior to identifying the optimal therapy. In the meantime, precious time is lost, patients suffer unpleasant side effects and declining ability to tolerate additional therapy while tumors may continue to grow and mutate and become resistant to therapies, further reducing the future effectiveness of additional anti-cancer agents.  In addition to the expenditure of time, current cancer drugs are increasingly expensive.  When patients undergo several courses of therapy that are essentially ineffective against their specific cancer, the cost of therapy increases unnecessarily. 

By utilizing Biomerk Tumorgrafts to individualize the treatment regimen to the patient’s own tumor characteristics and genetic composition, the effectiveness of therapy increases significantly as does the quality of life by eliminating unnecessary therapies.  Patients whose tumors are engrafted, propagated and tested in this manner following a cancer diagnosis will have the option of evaluating numerous potential cancer treatments and receiving the most effective option early in their care, when the potential for curative therapy is the greatest.  Since the replication of the patient’s own tumor in mice enables the concurrent testing of multiple cancer therapies rather than sequential testing, the time to identify the most beneficial regimen is shortened considerably.  Customizing cancer treatment specifically to the genetic and biologic characteristics of an individual’s tumor is significantly more valuable than the potential outcomes from standard therapy. 

Mice engrafted with human cancers in this unique way may provide the following personalized oncology benefits:

• identification of unique characteristics in the patient’s Tumorgraft that provide insight into the optimal treatment options;
• testing the effectiveness of numerous targeted anti-cancer drugs  on a patient’s Tumorgraft before choosing the optimal drug to administer to the patient;
• development of a personalized vaccine directly from the patient’s tumor; and
• banking the patient’s Tumorgraft for future growth and propagation to enable future studies as needed.

In addition, Biomerk Tumorgrafts provide improved development options for companies engaged in the effort to bring the next generation of treatment drugs to market.  Conventional in vitro drug testing occurs on stock cancer cell lines that differ significantly from an individual’s actual tumor due to many passages of the tumor cells in vitro and vivo, a process that causes the cells to change.  Moreover, this typically causes cell lines to be more susceptible to cancer drugs than actual patient tumors.  A number of companies have begun to use a patient’s own cancer cells, but these too are typically cultured in a manner that causes the cells to change. It is no surprise that tests on cultured cells – regardless of the source – have such poor predictive and prognosticative capabilities. Biomerk Tumorgrafts, however, preserve key characteristics of the original human cancer and their response to drugs, Dr. Sidransky believes, is predictive of clinical outcomes in cancer patients; early results have been very promising.

Biomerk Tumorgrafts provide the following benefit for development of the next generation of treatment drugs:

• evaluating and predicting the effectiveness of new anti-cancer drugs at the early preclinical stage; early identification of drugs that will and won’t work in the clinic;
• discovering genetic biomarkers that can be used to develop companion diagnostic tests that identify the patients most likely to benefit from each treatment drug;
• targeted application of drugs in the patient’s most likely to benefit; shortens clinical development, reduces costs and improves the likelihood of regulatory and market success while providing improved outcomes for patients.

The Biomerk Tumorgraft platform could become a key enabler of personalized medicine – the “right drug, for the right patient, at the right time.”