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Individualized Treatment For Cancer Catching On

Link: Precision Therapeutics

(KDKA) One area that is getting more and more attention is the idea of individualized treatment for cancer.

A local company, based on the South Side, is making this available commercially.

In the lab they're trying to figure out which drugs are most likely to kill a specific person's cancerous tumor.

"We're part of what I think is a coming movement in cancer, to move toward more personalized treatment for patients," claims Sean MacDonald, CEO of Precision Therapeutics.

Biopsy specimens are sent to the lab, where they are prepared and treated with different doses of chemotherapy medicines. A report goes back to the doctor, with which medicines and doses worked the best.

The company hopes its approach doubles cancer response rates from the usual 20 percent, "That's our goal, maybe move it to 40 percent of the people who will respond to a particular therapy."

On average, eight medicines are tested at $500 each. MacDonald says insurance is covering this testing.

"A typical course of chemotherapy can cost between $20,000 and $40,000," he says, to clarify the context. "The test is relatively inexpensive compared to the types of therapy it helps direct."

Precision Therapeutics came into existence in 2000. Critics say their technique hasn't been around long enough to get any good long term information about success with this particular approach.

"Our long term goal is to continue to refine the science, remain on the cutting edge of science, to continue to clinically validate this product and move into other tumor types," MacDonald acknowledges.

Precision Therapeutics works with mostly gynecologic cancer, such as ovarian or cervical cancers, but they also work with colon, breast, and lung cancer.

Other centers across the country are working on the same concept. Macdonald says they are collaborating.

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