Technology

INDITREAT® REPLICATES THE FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR OF A PATIENT’S TUMOR

Drug Sensitivity Testing (DST) dates back to the 1940s as a way of identifying the most efficacious antibiotics against bacterial infections in individual patients. This concept was transferred to testing of anti-cancer drugs in the 1980s.

Yet the predictive value of these early cancer tests in solid cancers was limited. A solid tumor is to be regarded as an abnormal “organ”, whereas a complex interplay between cancer cells and other cell types dictates its functional behavior. Including drug sensitivity. The development of three-dimensional microtumors (tumoroids) that reflect the complexity of the individual patient’s solid tumor or metastasis has dramatically improved the accuracy of drug sensitivity testing.

Part of the IndiTreat® Test proceedings is the delicate but safe in vitro culture of hundreds of three-dimensional (3D) patient-derived tumoroids (PDTs) stemming from a patient’s tumor biopsy. These PDTs have been shown to repeat key features of their solid cancer of origin in vitro, such as its cell type mix,  histology,genetic composition and, importantly, they exhibit variation in drug sensitivity in line with what is experienced in the clinical setting.

IndiTreat® therefore generates – for each patient – an individual, complex tumor model as true to real life as possible, which is precisely what is needed to guide treatment decisions in clinical reality.

IP Protection and three CE-marked tests

The IndiTreat® test is protected by multiple families of issued patents that make our service truly unique. We are the only company globally to have three CE-marked tests (IndiTreat® Start, Extend and Explore) to support therapy decision-making in metastatic colorectal cancer. Please go here to read about IndiTreat’s clinical evidence that is needed to be awarded the CE-marking.

At the end of 2022, we announced a development project for an additional IndiTreat® product (IndiTreat® Neo). IndiTreat® Neo will support treatment decisions in earlier, non-metastatic, stages of colorectal cancer, thus expanding the current market opportunity even further.

ALIGNMENT WITH CLINICAL WORKFLOW

While the tests are currently offered as a service (samples arriving from hospitals all over Europe are tested in the company’s laboratory in Copenhagen), the goal is to develop a system of instruments and reagents that will allow in-house testing at hospitals. This too will open up a larger market for the company.An important feature of IndiTreat® is that test results are aligned time-wise with the clinical workflow for medical treatment of cancer patients.

2cureX has a collaboration with Hahn-Schickard Institute in Freiburg, Germany, for automating the critical steps of IndiTreat® and the latest prototype instrument was transferred to 2cureX in Copenhagen early November 2022. Automation of IndiTreat® opens for decentralization of the drug sensitivity testing to hospitals.

For more information, please go to www.inditreat.com.