An innovative life science startup has positioned itself squarely at the intersection of the “free the data” movement and personalized medicine. It encourages cancer patients to store their tumors when they have surgery, with the idea that they can use them to determine their best cancer treatment options. The hope is to give patients more choices and control over their treatment.
StoreMyTumor is led by Michel Sadaka, who primarily worked in private equity before starting the business. Based in Philadelphia, the company is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. People tend to hear about the company through word of mouth.
So why would people want to store their tumors? In a phone interview with MedCity News, Sadaka points out that people for whom traditional cancer therapy isn’t working want to ensure that they have options.
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Sadaka frequently mentions his startup’s putting-patients-first approach to its service. He sees potential for more centers like StoreMyTumor to avoid the potential for miscommunication that can happen when people ask hospitals for tumor storage.
The startup works directly with patients and collects fluid and solid tumors that are viable. and preserves them until patients can figure out their treatment options. Patients register with the center. When they are scheduled for surgery, they receive a kit that the surgeon uses to deposit the tumor, and it is sent back to the center. Although it’s been likened to banking umbilical cord blood, which contains stem cells, Sadaka disagrees with that concept because people with cancer tend to have a limited time to do something to improve their condition. About 50 percent of its customers use their tumor within one year of banking it. That’s not a pressure frequently associated with umbilical cord blood banking.
Diagnostics tends to be a big focus for many of its customers. They want to know if they will qualify for a particular clinical trial, or whether their cancer will respond to a particular drug or chemotherapy treatment. The center can test the reaction of various chemo or combination therapies on a part of the patient’s tumor in the lab. Patients can get DNA testing to determine if the tumor is part of a genetic mutation that would be more likely to respond to a particular therapy. Patients can also have their tumors assessed for biomarkers — about 20 biomarkers have been identified and are in clinical use, according to the National Cancer Institute. The presence of a biomarker can indicate the presence of a particular type of cancer. Some targeted cancer therapies focus on a particular biomarker.
One of the most exciting applications that many patients seek is cancer immunotherapy. StoreMyTumor’s website directs patients to clinical trials in cancer vaccine therapies, T cell therapies and for stem cells listed on Clinical Trials.gov. Sadaka sees this area as driving the center’s future growth. But he adds that the company doesn’t provide clinical advice. “If a patient wants to take part in a clinical trial we can give them basic information. We try to educate patients as much as we can.” So they need to defer to their doctors for that.
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Sadaka said the biggest challenge when StoreMyTumor first opened was the diversity of hospitals’ pathology policies — none were standardized and each hospital seemed to have a different approach. It responded by optimizing the process of how its tumor kits are packaged.
Although the company fields calls from pharmaceutical companies, Sadaka said it is firm in its commitment to patients, and they take the lead in directing how their tumor is used. If a patient dies while their tumor is in storage, it is given to the family’s estate or donated to research.
StoreMyTumor seems like the most natural progression of the desire by patients to take a more active role in their treatment. Although Sadaka said he is in the process of opening a similar tumor bank in Europe, it will be interesting to see if other similar companies come into this. It seems like a natural fit with a research institution. If cancer immunotherapy continues to be as promising as the research suggests or indeed if other personalized approaches to treatment emerge, these centers could offer an important resource.
[Photo from Flickr user Ed uthman]
