The “one mutation-one drug” strategy has not worked for brain cancer and other complex solid cancers. The current treatment has not resulted in improved quality of life or a longer lifespan. If we want to treat cancer more effectively, we need a novel approach to cancer care. In our program at Cedars-Sinai, we use precision science to develop new, personalized cancer treatments. Right now, we’re focused on the most common type of brain cancer, but are developing a procedure that

could tackle ANY type of cancer.

Our research study currently focuses on patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive and common type of brain cancer. Harnessing the power of Big Data – specifically genome-wide mutational analysis of a specific patient’s cancer, we are able to build a virtual tumor cell.

Precision Science Delivering a Novel, Personalized Approach to Cancer Care

Our precision science strategy is possible through an intense collaboration between academia and industry, bringing together individuals with diverse expertise in cancer biology, software engineering, mathematics and pharmacology to holistically model most of the known cancer cell-signaling pathways.

Think of the tumor as the Death Star from “Star Wars.” To destroy it you cannot mount an attack on one small-perceived weakness on its surface (i.e., a single mutation on a cancer cell); you need a multitude of talented spies that infiltrate and bring back the blueprint of the entire complex architecture of the Death Star. Only then is a coordinated and precise attack possible

The more spies you have – the more cancer cell-signaling pathways you can map – the more complete and accurate the schematic you can build for the tumor. And it’s an iterative process, where every new case brings more information.

We compare the simulation predictions to the real patient tumor cells that have been growing in our laboratory. We take the “real data” from experiments in our lab and

optimize and validate the virtual tumor model – for each individual patient.

We follow this step with an experiment where all FDA approved drug combinations are tried on the virtual tumor cell to identify the optimal drug combination that maximizes the cell kill for that specific brain tumor

Finally, we use the patient’s cancer cells and expose them to this unique and personalized drug combination to ensure that it effectively kills the patient’s cancer cells in the laboratory.

This isn’t theoretical. We have made solid progress in the past six months, evaluating five patients with encouraging results from this precision science strategy. Over the next six months, we will have data on 25 additional brain cancer patients.

We are currently developing an innovative randomized clinical trial, not to compare one drug to another, but to compare our Precision Medicine Treatment Algorithm to a current standard

treatment regimen.

FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE: @DrCPatil CONTACT: Chirag Patil MDChiragPatil@gmail.com(310) 423-7900