Would you like to increase your chances of having an effective cancer therapy?
Cancer is as individual as people themselves. Our testing procedure is designed to help find the best possible individually tailored therapy for you.
According to an analysis by the Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration, more than 20 million people globally are diagnosed with cancer every year (Kocarnik et al., 2021). This diagnosis often changes one’s entire life. Whether you are affected yourself or are a relative or friend of someone with the disease, many questions arise. In the following, we would like to provide you with answers about our offer and explain how patients can benefit from it.
The most important facts in a nutshell: watch the video to learn how Reverse Clinical Engineering® works and how you can benefit from the testing procedure.
The Reverse Clinical Engineering®-test procedure
With Reverse Clinical Engineering®, ASC Oncology has developed a method that starts before your medical cancer therapy: a part of your tumor will be surgically removed. This tissue is then propagated in our laboratories as a cell culture in the Petri dish. We are now speaking of so-called tumor organoids or PD3D® cell cultures. The tumor organoids serve as small images of your individual tumor. We use them to test various medications and combinations to identify substances that are highly likely to affect your tumor. In addition, our test shows which drugs are likely to be ineffective, a valuable information that saves you the side effects of unnecessary therapies. Studies confirm that our test method correctly predicts the efficacy of drugs for a particular patient in around 88 % of cases and the ineffectiveness in up to 100 % of cases, (Vlachogiannis, 2018), thereby significantly prolonging disease-free survival.
The doctor’s decision about your therapy is by no means superfluous. However, through our test result your physician has a valuable support in selecting the optimal therapy for you. We support you as a patient with our dedication, experience and professional competence and support you through our network of clinics, universities and research institutes.
Who benefits from our test
Our test procedure is right for you:
You have been diagnosed with a solid tumor (a carcinoma or sarcoma).
Your tumor will be surgically removed, or a biopsy has been planned.
You will receive drug therapy.
Our test procedure is not right for you:
You have been diagnosed with blood cancer (leukemia) or lymphatic cancer (lymphoma).
Your tumor has already been removed, or a biopsy is not possible.
You will not receive a drug therapy.
Do you have questions or you are not sure if our test is suitable for you? Contact us via our contact form or by phone, we look forward to advise you.
Our next steps
- You have decided to take advantage of our service. In order to be able to coordinate everything with your oncologist, we first need a release from medical confidentiality from your side. You will receive these and all other required documents from us by email.
- As soon as we have received your order confirmation, we will send our sample tubes to an adress specified by you, for example to your home. You take these with you to the clinic for your surgery or biopsy appointment.
- During your tumor surgery or biopsy, your surgical team will place a small piece of your freshly removed tumor tissue into our sample tube and send it by express courier to our laboratories.
- We will send you notifications about the current status of your test. For example, we will inform you upon receipt of your tumor sample, at the beginning of the test and as soon as your results are available.
- We will send the final report to your oncologist, who can use the results for the selection of the optimal therapy and avoid ineffective medications. Take a look at our sample report to get an idea of what you can expect from us.
- Finally, you and your oncologist will arrange an appointment to discuss the results, if desired together with us.
For us it is very important to accompany both you and your oncologist on the way to a cancer therapy that is appropriate for you. We will take some steps with you, some with your oncologist and for some the team play between all of us is essential.
Costs
Developed by ASC, Reverse Clinical Engineering® supports oncologists in treating patients better and more effectively. Various studies have shown that the ASC method can reliably determine how effective the drugs will work, even before therapy begins. The PD3D® test procedure is, however, still one of the individual health services (known in Germany as IGeL) that must be paid by the patient privately. This means that you are charged the costs for this complex and labor-intensive procedure. We will create a personal offer for you that fits your needs and your individual situation.
PD3D®-Test
„Rudolf Virchow“
We use a fresh sample taken from your tumor to create a 3D cell culture. This is done by multiplying the tumor cells in a petri dish. Potential active substances are then tested on the tumor.
We consult with your oncologist to test the drugs that s/he believes are appropriate in your individual case and for your cancer.
After the agreed active substances have been successfully tested, we use modern software to evaluate the data. We then prepare a report for your doctor, which presents the data in a comprehensible way, and make specific suggestions for treatment – based on your individual tumor data.
PD3D®-Test
„Henrietta Lacks“
We use a fresh sample taken from your tumor to create a 3D cell culture. This is done by multiplying the tumor cells in a petri dish. Potential active substances are then tested on the tumor.
Especially when the tumor disease is in an advanced stage, there is a greater choice of drugs available to treat your tumor than in patients undergoing initial treatment. That is why, to attack the tumor as effectively as possible, we test more drugs and combination therapies.
After the agreed active substances have been successfully tested, we use modern software to evaluate the data. We then prepare a report for your doctor, which presents the data in a comprehensible way, and make specific suggestions for treatment – based on your individual tumor data.
PD3D®-Test
„Mina Bissell“
We use a fresh sample taken from your tumor to create a 3D cell culture. This is done by multiplying the tumor cells in a petri dish. Potential active substances are then tested on the tumor.
Especially when the tumor disease is in an advanced stage, there is a greater choice of drugs available to treat your tumor than in patients undergoing initial treatment. That is why, to attack the tumor as effectively as possible, we test more drugs and combination therapies.
After the agreed active substances have been successfully tested, we use modern software to evaluate the data. We then prepare a report for your doctor, which presents the data in a comprehensible way, and make specific suggestions for treatment – based on your individual tumor data.
Which test is the right one for me?
Our test packages differ in the number of tumor tissue samples processed, the range of drugs tested, the choice of an additional oncoproteomics analysis, and an optional preservation of your tumor cells. Deciding on which test package is right for you depends on your individual situation. This means that the most comprehensive test is not always the most suitable test for you.
That’s why you only pay a service fee in advance to cover the costs of creating the cell culture. As it makes no sense to test drugs that your oncologist cannot prescribe for you, we choose the drugs in close cooperation with your oncologist. We only finalize the test procedure after working with you and your oncologist to select the substances and methods to be tested.
In general, we can say: The more complex, larger, and advanced your tumor is, the more promising the “Henrietta Lacks” and “Mina Bissell” test procedures are. Whichever procedure you choose, however, will not in any way influence the quality of the results, which are consistently high.
Collaborations
FAQ
We go one step further. Sequencing tumors, for example, can reveal changes in the genetic material that may be used as a target for treatment of your tumor. However, it’s not clear if the targeted treatment will work in your case. Recent studies have shown that only a fraction of patients (0.8 – 3%) have been able to benefit from a therapy chosen for its sequencing results (Tannock & Hickman, 2019). In contrast, ASC Oncology’s Reverse Clinical Engineering® uses a person’s own tumor model to directly test the cancer drugs’ efficacy. This allows a prediction to be made about how you will respond to therapy. Find out more about the test procedure under Science.
Your treating physician removes a small piece of cancer tissue during your surgery or biopsy and sends this directly to ASC Oncology’s laboratory. Our team of scientists multiplies the living tumor cells in the lab and grows “avatars” of your tumor, called ‘tumor organoids’. These avatars of the tumor can be used to test drugs that may be candidates for treating your tumor, allowing the most effective anticancer drug to be determined before therapy begins. Our results are an important decision-making aid for personalized anticancer therapy. Compared to following standard guideline recommended therapy, this approach has higher chances of treatment success. View a complete list of steps of the procedure here.
No, ASC Oncology does not replace your oncologist, but provides you and your doctor with additional information. Every patient and every cancer is unique. The results of the Reverse Clinical Engineering® test procedure will tell you and your oncologist which drugs are likely to be effective on your individual tumor. These additional insights increase the chance of receiving effective drug therapy right from the start and avoiding ineffective therapies along with potential side effects.
It varies. Depending on the quality of the tumor sample and the cancer entity, growing PD3D® tumor models can take different amounts of time. On average, the Reverse Clinical Engineering® test procedure takes 28 days from receiving the sample to preparing the final report.
Please do not send a sample without letting us know in advance. Please contact us at 0800 6988667 or use our online form to register a patient and send a sample. We will organize the pick-up and provide everything needed to transport it as quickly as possible – even for short-term requests. Take a look at our overview of the procedure.
ASC Oncology was founded in 2019 by leading scientists in the fields of pathology, biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, and tumor biology. We are an interdisciplinary team of experts, who together with lawyers and business information specialists, are dedicated in our fight against cancer and to advance precision oncology.
ASC Oncology benefits from years of expertise in 3D cell culture and the latest findings in the field of tumor organoid research through close collaboration with its sister company CELLphenomics, which was founded in 2014. In addition, we are supported by a top-class advisory board consisting of physicians, scientists, and patient representatives.