Chemosensitivity Testing System: background
With 1.4 million estimated new cases of cancer in 2007 in the USA, early detection combined with aggressive treatment has proven to be one of the most effective methods for improving cancer outcomes. Maximizing successful outcomes—while minimizing patient discomfort, expense, and unpleasant side effects—requires accurate and sophisticated testing methods to determine the best chemotherapeutic regimen for each individual patient.
Currently there are only a few specialty labs performing chemosensitivity tests in the USA. By utilizing relatively unsophisticated isolated cell culture assays, most have only limited or varied degrees of success in prescribing appropriate drug regimens for a cancer patient. Recent developments have seen the advent of three-dimensional cell cultures that attempt to recreate tumor tissue structures which have proven to be better predictors of both chemosensitivity and chemoresistivity. One of the testing labs charges approximately $3,500 for assay directed testing, suggesting an overall market opportunity amounting to billions of US-Dollars per year.
The medical need and market opportunity for new and better solutions is urgent and obvious, and HepaHope intends to aggressively address those medical and market opportunities with its Chemosensitivity Testing System.