ONCOSMART is the first analytical tool that determines the effectiveness of anticancer drugs for a specific patient by testing live tumor cell response to one or multiple cancer drugs. The device has been validated on haematological cancers and analyses tumor and/or immune cells from bone marrow or blood samples from a specific cancer patient to provide a personalized report within 24-48 hours.
The solution is designed to support biopharmaceutical companies and clinics/hospitals, by accelerating the development of breakthrough therapies and by personalizing and optimizing their use on a patient-by-patient basis.
The system has been utilized in clinical settings where high-cost treatments, e.g. targeted therapies, combination regimens, molecular immunotherapies and cell therapies are in use. Therapy cost has reached, in many cases the range of €0.1-1 million per patient, posing a serious concern about economic sustainability and general access to latest-generation treatments. Healthcare expenditure in the EU is about €60 billion for cancer treatment, €6-8 billion only for blood cancers. The analytical system here developed can deeply impact on these costs and support value-based healthcare models providing payers with data-driven reimbursement strategies.
The latest application of the platform was related to cancer immunotherapies which represent the fastest growing segment in oncology. Cell therapy, in particular, is growing at an exponential rate with more than 2,000 products in development and more than 1,300 clinical trials, but has limited patient access due to the unsustainable cost for the healthcare systems. The platform accelerates the discovery and development of cancer immunotherapies with a market opportunity in the €3 billion range, growing to €9 billion by 2025 only for tests supporting the R&D of new therapeutic products in immuno-oncology and with future applications in the quality control and clinical testing settings.
