The fast-paced life has brought in a series of problems with it. Many diseases which were rare or unheard of previously are pretty common these days. Cancer is one such disease that has seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Apart from environmental and heredity causes, most of them are sporadic. OncoDxRx, Los Angeles-based liquid biopsy tech in the field of precision oncology, has launched a one-of-a-kind product – PGA (Patient-derived Gene expression-informed Anticancer drug efficacy). Compared to traditional biomarker testing for patient qualification for targeted therapy (i.e., responders), PGA helps predict accurate drug response for those cancer patient non-responders. The critical point is that every cancer is unique, and so is the individual’s body’s response to its treatment.

Scientifically, cancer is a disease that results in the abnormal growth of body cells due to multiple reasons like wrong lifestyle and radiation exposure, but it is often a result of genetic abnormalities. Due to research, scientists are closer to understanding the biology of cancer. Researchers worldwide are developing new treatments and medicines to increase the chances of survival, control the disease and lessen the side effects.

Recently a breakthrough technology Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has created ripples in the medical world. NGS helps in identifying multiple mutations resulting in the development of targeted treatment. It has led to improving the speed and accuracy while reducing the cost of sequencing. Precision therapy ensures designing a personalized cancer treatment based on an individual’s genes. This ensures a better response to the medication, and chances of survival increase tremendously. However, only about 20-30% of patients are actually qualified for targeted therapy as responders, leaving the majority of patients out of precision medicine as non-responders.

PGA will utilize in vitro testing and in silico analytics insights into patients’s own gene expression signatures associated with drug response. The data will be clubbed along with OncoDxRx proprietary gene-drug data mapping to provide accurate drug recommendations for the non-responder population.

There is a rise in cancer cases, a condition not so common three decades ago, especially among youngsters. There might be environmental and hereditary reasons behind the rise, but most sporadic cases. Targeted therapies will be a first or second option for chemotherapy. More NGS-PGA paired testing of tumor cells are needed. It is necessary for the researchers, scientists, and oncologists to collaborate and benefit the entire cancer population from targeted therapies.

OncoDxRx has launched PGA test for cancer treatment and developed bioinformatics algorithms for data fusion analysis. This product uses gene expression analysis and provides crucial information to the physicians about potentially effective drugs for the patients, where targeted therapies are not working. The lab uses qPCR instruments to run the blood samples like the one in COVID-19 testing, and the doctors utilize the customized reports to make informed decisions, all in 5 days.

OncoDxRx is the only company able to perform PGA in the space now, and actively seeking for potential partner labs. The company founders firmly believe that PGA will lead to the best treatment choices for the patient non-responders.