HOUSTON, Oct. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, MolecularMatch, Inc. announced it has launched its innovative software solution as an open Beta information service for oncologists and patients to easily connect cancer patients with the most appropriate FDA-approved treatments and clinical trials based on the molecular make-up of the patient’s disease.
“Utilizing technology licensed from MD Anderson Cancer Center, we created a system that takes everything we as an industry know about the way past patients responded to therapies, and match that data against each new patient’s molecular make-up to offer information on approved drugs or clinical trials that could benefit the patient,” said Kevin Coker, CEO of MolecularMatch. “And the best news is, the service is completely free to physicians and patients.”
The number of cancer survivors in the United States has grown from 3 million in 1971 to more than 13 million today. Nearly 800 drugs are currently in development in the United States alone. Despite these encouraging trends, physicians and patients have trouble trying to keep up with which is the most beneficial therapy for each patient. “I created MolecularMatch to help busy doctors and patients deal with the information overload that is now a daily part of our lives as we try to digest an explosive amount of genomic data now commonly used in oncology,” said Dr. James Welsh, founder and Chief Medical Officer, MolecularMatch. “With our technology, doctors and patients can quickly identify which drugs and/or trials are ‘MolecularMatches’ for their tumor mutations.”
“Our goal at MolecularMatch is to connect each patient with the most effective therapy for their tumor type whether it’s an approved targeted drug or an experimental drug in a clinical trial, the MolecularMatch system can look within a physician’s own network, within a defined geography, or at another institution to find the best match,” said Welsh.
Participation in clinical trials is traditionally very low, with less than 2 percent of adult cancer patients age 20 to 39 entering into a trial. Access to trials remains a significant issue.
MolecularMatch opens up possibilities for patients by identifying therapies and trials from around the globe and sharing this information with the patient and the physician to be considered as a treatment option. “Access to the best treatments shouldn’t vary based on where you live,” says Coker. “Everyone should have access to the same cutting edge, precision therapies.”
The MolecularMatch software connects patients and physicians directly to the data. “In this first phase, our system is used best to match personalized medicine drugs to patients that have had a genetic sequencing test so that we can match the patient to recently developed, or developing, precision therapies that target a specific genetic biomarker,” says Coker.
To use the system, visit www.molecularmatch.com. Enter a condition (e.g. Colon Cancer, or Non Small Cell Lung Cancer) into the search bar. For more refined results, include genetic alterations from the patient’s molecular diagnostic test result, (e.g. HER2+ Breast Cancer, KRAS Colon Cancer, or ALK positive Non Small Lung Cancer).
About MolecularMatch
MolecularMatch makes personalized medicine a reality. MolecularMatch is initially optimized for cancer patients in the United States. The core service is a web-based tool that can be utilized from a computer or mobile device and is intended to match a patient’s genetic information from their disease to an appropriate therapy. The tool creates evidence-based treatment suggestions containing: 1) FDA-approved therapies, 2) experimental drugs that are currently being tested, and 3) and appropriate clinical trials. Information provided by MolecularMatch is purely for informational purposes and should not take the place of information given by a physician or healthcare provider.
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SOURCE MolecularMatch
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