Syringes and Target
Syringes and Target,close-up.

Precision medicine company Perthera has announced a partnership with the non-profit patient support organization Hope for Stomach Cancer that will see Perthera’s Precision Cancer Analysis (PCA) service provided to all Hope for Stomach Cancer patients at no cost to them.

PCA is a service that brings together a variety of CLIA/CAP accredited labs to perform genomic and proteomic tissue analysis, in cooperation with a patient’s care team. The results are then examined in relation to Perthera’s proprietary data, and by internal cancer specialists to provide clinical decision support for a precision approach to treating a patient’s cancer.

“We're hopeful that through this new program stomach cancer patients can get a PCA so they can be treated with precision drugs more often,” said Aki Smith, founder of Hope for Stomach Cancer.

The partnership with Hope for Stomach Cancer is the latest in a series of strategic collaborations struck by Perthera with similar advocacy groups for different cancers. These include relationships with the Pancreatic Cancer Action Alliance (PanCAN) and the Lung Cancer Alliance (LungMATCH), which help the company demonstrate to patients the benefits of a precision-medicine approach to treating cancer.

“Hope for Stomach Cancer's program is another sign that precision medicine is morphing from its emerging technology stage into a very real and powerful cancer treatment component,” said Andrew Mignatti, CEO and president of Perthera.

Mignatti noted that the company is taking a “multi-omics” approach to tissue analysis as it provides greater insight to the specfics of each patient’s disease.

“In addition to genomic analysis, patients who use the Hope for Stomach Cancer program will have proteomic testing so that protein level and protein activation level changes, which are often more relevant to treatment response, can be identified,” he added.

A significant component of the work Perthera does is to help identify and match patients with clinical trials that may be of benefit. According to the company, while patients are often reluctant to be enrolled in distant clinical studies, Perthera helps organize and present appropriate trials by geography, a service that makes it easier for patients to say yes, and potentially receive cutting-edge cancer care without needing to leave home behind.

In late January, Perthera announced it had reached an agreement with Novartis for targeted trials in breast and lung cancer. Under the agreement, Novartis would access Perthera’s network of patients who had received the PCA molecular profiling service to best match them to Novartis’ clinical trials.

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