dr Regenbrecht, what role does diagnostics play in cancer therapy?
A central one, because without diagnostics there can be no cancer treatment. That is why cancer genes are sequenced – because one hopes to be able to treat them in a targeted manner. However, only 10-15% of patients benefit from it because it is just a snapshot of a tumor. The tumor is constantly changing, so no precise prediction of the effectiveness of a planned treatment is possible. That is why we have developed the organoid technology of Reverse Clinical Engineering® with the Charité, among others.
How does the Reverse Clinical Engineering® test procedure improve the chances of therapy?
Cancer is as individual as the patient. Standard therapies can therefore not work for every patient. With our method, we test before the start of treatment which cancer drugs are likely to successfully kill the individual tumor of a specific patient and which have no effect on the tumor. Reverse Clinical Engineering® is used in particular for rare or advanced tumors to determine personalized treatments. For the test, we receive a sample of the tumor and grow so-called organoids in the laboratory. On these tiny 3D copies of the tumor, we test various drugs, including off-label use, in consultation with the treating physicians. If desired, we can also do this with any number of drugs and combinations until we have found a drug that effectively fights the tumor. Oncologists and patients can thus make informed decisions about therapy in the best possible way.
Our test is used by doctors worldwide, but not yet covered by statutory health insurance companies in Germany. Therefore, the Cancer Rebels eV, which we co-founded, supports, among other things, cancer patients who cannot afford the procedure.
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