Helomics, SpeciCare Enter Live Tumor Tissue Precision Cancer Care Collaboration

Helomics, SpeciCare Enter Live Tumor Tissue Precision Cancer Care Collaboration
Prostate cancer cells, computer illustration.

Precision Therapeutics’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Helomics announced it will collaborate with SpeciCare, whereby Helomics will provide CRO services and its D-CHIP artificial intelligence (AI) platform for a functional precision medicine study called PIONEER sponsored by SpeciCare.

Georgia-based SpeciCare is a cryopreservation company that saves living tumor tissue which it says can provide broader insights to a patient’s cancer and open up treatment options that may not be apparent using current cancer testing methods. The PIONEER study will take a functional precision medicine approach that goes beyond merely genomic sequencing of tumor tissue taking a number of different approaches to examine how a tumor behaves under different therapeutic regimens.

“SpeciCare is at the forefront of a renewed interest in functional precision medicine, which has been core to our personalized oncology approach for many years,” said Gerald J. Vardzel Jr., president of Helomics in a press release. “We are excited to work with SpeciCare on their PIONEER initiative study, which will utilize Helomics’ core functional precision medicine technology of live tumor drug profiling assays (TruTumor) and genomic profiling coupled with our AI-driven bioinformatics platform, D-CHIP. This collaboration further demonstrates the value of our CRO services and D-CHIP platform, both to generate revenue, and advance personalized medicine to improve patient treatment and outcomes.”

According to information from SpeciCare, taking a genomics-only approach to diagnosing a patients’ particular form of cancer only focuses on a small handful of known biomarkers and the drug known to be effective for treating them. This approach can often miss potentially life-saving treatments.

“Our PIONEER initiative study aims to demonstrate the value of functional precision medicine approaches on living tissue stored from the patient, to better connect patients to new treatment options,” said Ken Dixon, M.D., founder and CEO of SpeciCare. “Partnering with Helomics, who have over a decade of experience in testing living tumor tissue, aligns well with these study goals.”