Breast
Virtual Patients will Predict Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer Treatment
By Akanksha, Pharmacology Correspondent
Feb 4, 2005, 12:22

Optimata Ltd. and the Soroka University Medical Center announced today the launch of a validation study for the treatment of breast cancer using Optimata's revolutionary Virtual Cancer Patient technology.The technology creates an in silico 'clone' for each patient and predicts how the patient will respond to leading cancer drugs such as Adriamycin, Docetaxel, Paclitaxel, Vinorelbine and Tamoxifen.

The goal is to improve the efficacy of breast cancer treatments and to avoid the harsh and toxic treatments that patients often undergo at present, when the schedule of chemotherapy is determined by trial-and-error.

"Breast cancer patients currently are all treated according to the same chemotherapy protocols, yet only between 15-65 percent of the patients respond to the chemotherapy.There is a need to find an empirical way of individualizing the therapy for each patient," said Prof. Samuel Ariad, Head of Soroka's Institute of Oncology and Chief Investigator in the study.

In the first part of the study, the prediction accuracy of Optimata's Virtual Patient Engine will be validated using results of 360 patients who were monitored for up to four years after being treated with a chemotherapy drug.

Optimata will create a computerized clone for each patient, using the patient's pre-treatment physiological, histopathological and radiological data, as estimated at Soroka. Optimata's researchers will "treat" each Virtual Cancer Patient with the therapy prescribed for each real patient and will predict whether she is expected to develop metastases and in which body locations. These predictions will be then compared with the real results of the 360 patients treated at Soroka.

In the second part of the study, the initial data of 40 breast cancer patients from the above group, who were known to have developed metastases and were treated with either Adriamycin, Docetaxel, Paclitaxel, Vinorelbine or Tamoxifen will be used and their individual metastases dynamics under each one of the above drugs will be retrieved by Optimata's Virtual Patient Engine. Predictions will be compared with the clinical results.

In December of 2004, Optimata initiated a similar validation study in collaboration with Nottingham City Hospital in the UK. Following completion of these studies, Optimata plans to begin clinical trials using the Virtual Cancer Patient technology to provide optimal dosing and scheduling regimens for actual breast cancer patients on an individual basis.

In addition to improving the use of existing cancer and other drugs, Optimata's platform technology is expected to accelerate the development of new drugs. "The Virtual Patient Engine enables drug developers to rapidly test and optimize drug development in silico, thereby reducing the number of animal and human trials required to bring a new drug to market," said Prof. Zvia Agur, Chairperson and Chief Scientific Officer.

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