Life-saving cancer 'avatars'

ONE of the most personalised and individualised approaches to cancer treatment is now available in Singapore - with the introduction of Champions Tumorgraft. While strides have been made through testing the molecular genetics in the patient's cancer and selecting the appropriate targeted agents, a faster and easier way for true personalisation is now available, says David Sidransky, an oncologist and chairman of Champions Oncology, which offers Champions Tumorgraft.

"Personalised therapy is important now in all medicine and especially in oncology," he says. "However, oncology medication deals with general situations and is not specific to the patient. The medication is effective in some 20-50 per cent of cases. About half of the patients won't receive benefits, and they lose time as well as accumulate toxicity through chemotherapy."

Champions Tumorgraft works on a different principle and it's primarily a diagnostic tool. Instead of "testing" drugs on the patient, the principle is to test drugs against the patient's own tumour - grafted onto a colony of mice, so that they represent the tumour in the patient. The understanding is that if the drug has the same effect on the tumour in the mouse, it will have an effect on the patients.