DiaTech Oncology and Walter Reed Army Medical Center Establish Pilot to Determine Best Chemotherapy for Cancer Patients

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- DiaTech Oncology announced today they have engaged in a pilot with Walter Reed Army Medical Center to determine the best Chemotherapy for Cancer patients. Medical and GYN Oncologists and from Walter Reed have been working with DiaTech Oncology (Nashville, TN) using the MiCK assay for apoptosis in order to give physicians a tool that can predict the best chemotherapy pathway in treating cancer patients. The study will eventually be introduced to other military hospitals and results will be collected on multiple cancers. Previous studies published by DiaTech have demonstrated the MiCK assay can increase the patient's response to chemotherapy, resulting in increased patient survival. In addition, the assay can guide the physician on single vs. combination therapy and when generic vs. proprietary drugs are more effective.  

"To be able to predict the best chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients has been a goal for oncologists for many years and we now have the data that proves this technology works for all cancers. In addition the test can guide a physician on choosing between single drug or combination treatments and whether to use less expensive generic drugs or newer proprietary drugs based on which drugs will give the patient the most effective response," said Dr. Cary Presant, DiaTech Medical Director, and Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

In the MiCK assay, the tumor cells of an individual patient are exposed to multiple doses of several chemotherapeutic drugs either as single drugs or in combinations. A sophisticated algorithm is used to monitor and compute the amounts of apoptosis caused by each of the drugs to establish a drug sensitivity profile of the patient's tumor cells. Knowledge of a patient's drug sensitivity profile allows the treating oncologists to prescribe chemotherapy that would be the most effective against the tumor cells of that patient.

No other technology in the market today can measure apoptotic cancer cell death directly and predict chemotherapy treatment. The capabilities and performance of the MiCK assay technology far exceed those of any other cancer testing assays available in the current market. It is the only test assay available today with proof-of-concept outcome data, utilizing 45 different chemotherapy agents and numerous combinations of drug therapy. The MiCK assay has been used successfully to test all types of cancers.

DiaTech Oncology is a privately held clinical pathology laboratory working to help oncologists and their patients deal with the devastating effects of cancer. DiaTech utilizes a patented technology called the Microculture Kinetic (MiCK) assay. The MiCK assay is the only test available that measures the chemotherapeutic drug effect for a specific patient kinetically and accurately.

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SOURCE DiaTech Oncology