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SHANGHAI (BLOOMBERG) – Two American oncologists trained at Harvard, supported by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing, are trying to harness technology to reorganize cancer care. They are taking some of their first steps in China – the cancer zero.
China has the largest number of cancer patients in the world, but specialized treatments are so rare that patients often have to travel long distances to the best hospitals, living in dilapidated housing for months for short visits to hospitals. oncology.
This problem began to attract the attention of major investors, and Mr. Li, one of the richest men in Asia, became in 2015 the first funder of the start-up doctors, called Driver.
Other investors have joined and, with the support of 100 million US dollars (137 million Singapore dollars), the company is developing technology that allows cancer patients to better control their care.
He officially starts enrolling patients in China and the United States this week, after a 17-month trial with several hundred people.
The hope is to use technology to solve a permanent problem at the heart of global oncology.
The range of cancer drugs and experimental treatments has exploded, and 133 billion US dollars are spent each year around the world for these drugs, according to researcher Iqvia Institute.
Yet, patients often can not find all available options unless they are screened by an overworked oncologist. Researchers, meanwhile, can not always keep abreast of other studies – sometimes even within their vast medical institutions.
The driver's solution? Analyze patients' tumors, DNA and other medical records in the San Francisco and Southern China start-up labs and create an app to show patients the best treatments and clinical trials to the world corresponding to their specific tumors.
The driver works in both countries. Yet, information gaps are particularly visible in China: according to an article in the Journal of Global Oncology, there are only 18 oncologists for one million people in China, compared with 161 for the same number in the United States.
"There is an air gap between knowledge and patients in cancer care since the 1850s," said Will Polkinghorn, co-founder of Driver. "We want to close this space."
Tapping technology
The first major driver partnership also appeared in China: the Beijing-based National Cancer Center, the central agency for cancer research, with which 840,000 patients pass each year.
Next week, the NCC plans to officially announce the use of the Driver platform to manage more than 200 ongoing clinical trials.
"Before Driver, we managed this manually," said Li Ning, director of the NCC's clinical trials office. "This has allowed researchers and doctors to systematically recruit patients and monitor ongoing trials in the facility."
But for his greatest ambitions to come true, Driver will need large numbers of patients to sign up. Full service, including tumor treatment and registration, followed by treatment adaptation and curation, will cost $ 3,000, which will limit access to affluent patients.
Dr. Polkinghorn was a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, one of the largest cancer treatment centers in the United States, and his co-founder, Dr. Petros Giannikopoulos, was a pathologist at the Faculty of Medicine of the United States. Harvard.
Both were graduates of Harvard Medical School, but funding for Silicon Valley was inadequate. They found luck in Hong Kong, where they earned money from Horizons Ventures, a fund run by Li Ka Shing's partner, Solina Chau, and the main channel of investment for his fortune.
Board members now include pioneer gene publisher Jennifer Doudna and fashion designer and cancer advocate Tory Burch. They did not say how many 100 million US dollars came from Mr. Li Ka Shing or who the other investors are.
Horizons Ventures said in a statement that it had invested in Driver because of the growing need for a new platform to connect patients with new therapies as cancer cases increase globally.
RESEARCH AGAINST CANCER
In the United States, the government's lead cancer research organization, the National Cancer Institute, is registered as a driver partner, making information about its clinical trials available on the start-up platform. It has also validated the driver adaptation system.
Mr Matthew Brown, Chinese director of NCI in Beijing, said that access to Chinese patients could facilitate cancer research. For example, he said, if Chinese users agreed to anonymously download their scans into a global imaging database, this would allow scientists to better understand the evolution of certain cancers.
The vast body of patients at the National Cancer Center of China could help attract users. Mr. Li Ning said that since his doctors used Driver as an internal management tool, it was "possible" that they recommend patients to sign up for the application, although they do not have to do it. The driver does not charge the NCC for the use of its platform.
ACTIVE ROLE
All patients, especially in China, are not able to play a more active role in therapeutic decisions.
"In Asia, decision-making can also be much more paternalistic, as patients tend to rely on the doctor," said Joseph Kim, Senior Innovation Advisor for Clinical Development at Eli Lilly & Co.
In Miami, Mr. Jesus Loreto used Driver earlier this year to find options for prostate cancer that did not involve hormonal treatments, which in his view could have side effects. Driver has compiled a list of about nine essays corresponding to his needs.
"My oncologist is good, but he would only recommend me tests in his institution, and he did not recommend new possibilities, like doing a liquid biopsy," said the former senior pharmaceutical executive. 66 years old.
Mr. Loreto stated that he had not been enlisted in trials, as his condition remained stable. However, "having access to Driver m has helped fill the gaps in the information I wanted," he said.
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