Champions Oncology is an American technology company that develops mouse avatars. Called TumorGrafts, they are used to test a panel of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

regimens, targeted therapies and

monoclonal antibodies A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell Lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies ca ...

to identify potential therapeutic options for cancer patients. The company was founded in 2007 by David Sidransky, M.D., a

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

oncologist.

TumorGrafts

Champions TumorGrafts maintain the microenvironment surrounding the

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

and have been shown to have high correlation to the patient’s tumor. Due to this close resemblance to the human tumor, TumorGrafts are highly predictive of treatment outcomes in patients. Studies have shown the mouse avatars predict clinical benefit in 80% of patients. Approximately 450 TumorGrafts have been established as of April 2014. TumorGrafts are also being used as a pre-clinical research tool to improve clinical drug development. Compared to traditional xenograft models, TumorGrafts, have a greater degree of accuracy in predicting clinical effectiveness of oncology drugs and thus can decrease clinical risk for drug developers. Champions has formed partnerships with multiple drug developers, including Teva and

Pfizer Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfizer ...

The process

When a cancer patient undergoes surgery or biopsy, a living sample of the tumor is obtained and implanted into the mouse, creating a mouse avatar. Once the TumorGraft has successfully grown, the tumor is then propagated in a second generation of mice and tested against a panel of cancer drugs and drug combinations to help identify more accurately which treatment regimen is likely to be most effective in a specific patient. In this way, various drugs are tested on a live sample of the actual patient's tumor, rather than on the patient. This reduces the likelihood of treatment with ineffective drugs and their associated side effects, and it increases the likelihood of finding a treatment that will work against the patient's tumor. For patients whose tumors have also undergone molecular testing, such as

next-generation sequencing Massive parallel sequencing or massively parallel sequencing is any of several high-throughput approaches to DNA sequencing using the concept of massively parallel processing; it is also called next-generation sequencing (NGS) or second-generation s ...

, the selection of potential drugs is further guided by any and all applicable results. In the event the cancer progresses or recurs, Champions also banks, or stores, each successful TumorGraft for potential future patient use.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://championsoncology.com/ Cancer organizations based in the United States 2007 establishments in the United States