Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Heligenics, an advanced biotech company, has announced the development of a groundbreaking precision genetic test for the selection of drugs to treat breast cancer. This test is the first of its kind and aims to address the issue of drug resistance that many breast cancer patients encounter. Despite the availability of multiple drugs for treatment, patients often develop resistance, leading to a lack of response from cancer cells to the drugs intended to combat them.
Heligenics, an innovative biotech company, has recently unveiled a groundbreaking genetic test for breast cancer that aims to tackle the issue of drug resistance. Unlike the current lack of a systematic approach to identifying the specific gene variants responsible for target-derived drug resistance, Heligenics' test offers a promising solution. With over 10,000 potential mutations in a cancer gene, determining which mutations cause resistance has been a challenge. However, Heligenics has revolutionized the selection of appropriate drugs by introducing their first-of-its-kind genetic test, which evaluates three FDA-approved drugs: Tykerb™, Tukysa™, and Nerlynx™.
The test utilizes Heligenics' proprietary GigaAssay technology, enabling rapid identification of the mutations that render a breast cancer patient susceptible or resistant to specific drugs. By starting with these three breast cancer drugs, Heligenics seeks to transform the analysis of biopsies into a data-driven approach for personalized treatment decisions.
Dr. Jerome Rotter, a board member of Heligenics and Director of Translational Genomics and Population Sciences at the Lundquist Institute/Harbor-UCLA, expressed optimism about the test, hailing it as a significant step towards the future of personalized drug therapy.
