DiaCarta, Inc., USA
Current clinically available molecular tests for detection of nucleic acid variations especially those performed on circulating cell-free nucleic acids present in biological fluids such as patientʼs blood plasma have limited sensitivity. In order to achieve high sensitivity for the detection of only a few target molecules (mutant alleles) present in a vast excess of non-target molecules (wild-type alleles) sophisticated methodologies that require expensive instrumentation, highly skilled operators and in some cases intensive computational bioinformatics methods such as digital-droplet PCR (ddPCR), BEAMing PCR and next generation deep sequencing (NGS) are being employed in large clinical research centers. The limited availability, high cost and long analysis times of these methods prompted us to develop a new technology that can be performed globally by existing pathology personnel with instrumentation that is already present in every hospital pathology laboratory. At the heart of this innovative technology are new molecular nucleic acid analogs: xenonucleic acids (XNA) that possess all the natural bases that occur in DNA appended to a novel chemical backbone that imbibes these oligomeric nucleic acid binding molecules with exquisite specificity and extremely avid binding affinity for complementary target sequences. Any variation in the sequence that the XNA binds to creates a differential thermodynamic free energy of binding anomaly that has been exploited to develop target amplification based real-time qPCR and extremely high sensitivity NGS and bead-based hybridization capture assays that can detect as little as 2 copies of variant templates in a large excess of wild-type templates in DNA obtained from tissue biopsies or plasma circulating cell free DNA (cfDNA). Commercial CE/IVD Certified Products that have been developed and validated include QClampTM gene specific real-time qPCR based tests, a new colorectal cancer detection test called ColoScapeTM a high sensitivity amplicon based target NGS platform called OptiSeqTM and a multiplex target amplicon hybridization capture technology for monitoring drug sensitizing and resistance mutations in cancer patients. This presentation will discuss this new ground-breaking technology and the precision diagnostics and targeted therapy opportunities that it affords.
Biography:
Mike is currently Chief Scientific Officer at DiaCarta, Inc. where he manages the companyʼs scientific and strategic direction in molecular diagnostics for oncology and infectious disease personalized diagnostics markets, most notably the development of branched DNA (bDNA) signal amplification and a novel somatic gene mutation Real-Time PCR based assay technology called QClampTM for applications in the diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases and the rapid detection of cancer ‘driverʼ and drug resistance genetic variations. Mike was previously a Founder of Odyssey Thera Inc., a privately held company that commercialized a proprietary fluorescent live cell-based assay and diagnostic imaging technology for the application in target validation and drug discovery. Mike was the Director of New Technology at Roche Diagnostics (Roche acquired Boehringer Mannheim Corporation in May, 1997 for $11B). Prior to the acquisition by Roche he was Director of New Technology at Boehringer Mannheim. He was also the Director of New Technology at Microgenics Corporation, in Concord, California. He was pioneer and lead scientist and inventor of the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) assay technology and also developed catalytic antibodies at IGEN, Inc. The ECL technology is the basis of Roche Diagnostics automated ‘in-vitro’ diagnostics immunoassay platform: ‘ElecSys’. Mike has held several other R & D senior management positions at Integrated Genetics Inc., Medisense and Celltech PLC, in the UK. Mike has published many research papers in leading scientific journals and holds over 30 patents and patent-pending applications. He received his Ph.D. in medicinal organic chemistry from Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK and Ph.D. from University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Clinical and Molecular Oncologist Academy Professor of Oncology, President, The World Academy of Medical Sciences, Netherlands
My speech will take about three hours in rather a Lecture & Discussion format and its duration may be divided between the three days of the Conference. Apart from the title, thereʼll be no display of details/on the conference website until the conference day just to protect its breakthrough exclusive elements in terms of scientific intellectual confidentiality.
Biography:
Dr. M. M. Karindas is the President of the WAMS, the World Academy of Medical Sciences, where he has been serving as its leader for more than two decades now. Having extensive experience as a research scientist in Clinical and Molecular Oncology, he is the holder of landmark theories including the “Multicellular Origin of Cancer” and “Oncogenetic Evolution” as well as the OCA/OTA/OCATA and ECE research studies. He is the creator and writer of the KGS, the “Karindas Grading System”, the all-encompassing universal paradigm of tumor grading and a new integral method of clinical management in oncology. He is also the writer and declarant of the phenomenal “International Declaration of Oncogenesis” whose Part III (OCA/OTA/OCATA in Oncogenesis) will be presented by him at ICST-2018 in Rome. Having his main research interests in “Oncogenesis”, “Metastasis”, “Cancer Stem Cells”, “Tumor Cell Biology”, “Molecular Oncopathology”, “Cell Signaling”, “Signal Transduction”, “Extracellular Matrix” and the “Origin and Evolution of Cancer “, he is currently busy working on the creation and establishment of a new medical algorithmic system which will universally be used in oncology as well as other fields of medicine.
1Pro-health.org, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2De Vruchtenburg, Netherlands
3Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
Introduction: The Dutch health care insurance companies and the governmentally national health care legislation did restrict the offer of counseling for cancer patients and raised as well the fees for the counseling. The conditions concerning the financial cost for the patients became higher for less counseling in 2012-2015. These changes were often not well communicated to the therapeutical centres and their clients. In a study about the perceived and communicated effects of these changes were explored concerning the inflow of clients and their treatment evaluation.
Method: The data was based on the yearly answered questionnaires at a big cancer centre, filled in after finishing the therapy by the clients. For this purpose, two groups of clients were formatted based on the occurring health insurance and legislation changes: clients receiving psycho-oncological care and filling in questionnaires in 2012/2013 (N=334) and clients from 2014/2015 (N=360). Analysing of the differences between both groups concerning inflow and evaluation, the differences in background characteristics were taken in account by using multivariate tests.
Results: The results show that in 2014/2015 in comparison with 2012/2013 the clients were more often women, were more often a relative, were older, were longer diagnosed with cancer, and had more often received for them an unknown cancer prognosis. Also differences in the evaluation of the care were found on two treatment aspects. Clients in 2014/2015 were more complaining about the information provided about the therapy, their active participation by choosing a therapy, and about the counselors itself, e.g. their trustworthiness. Almost identical results were found for the three most commonly followed therapies separately: individual counseling, cognitive behavioural therapy, and art therapy.
Discussion: The results indicate that the insufficient communication about the changes in the health care insurance as well as the national legislation of care conditions did harm the psychosocial counseling of cancer patients. The psycho-oncological care became less easily accessible and more negatively evaluated for some groups of clients. These effects might be caused by the changes in health insurance and legislation. Restrictions about the design, the subjective data, changes of therapists, and illness states of the clients will be discussed.
Biography:
Adriaan Visser (1941), PhD, studied social psychology at the Free University, Amsterdam (NL). The published thesis (1984) was on the methodology of the measurement of patient satisfaction. Worked the rest of his life mostly as health psychologist, engaged in education of university and high school students (psychology, medical, nursing), research in health care, implementation of health care changes, writing, and editing. Nearly 100 grants have been awarded and a lot articles published on patient education, organization of health care, dental care, diabetes, fibromialgie, psychosocial cancer care, breast cancer, prostate cancer, palliative care, aging, family planning, psycho-neuroimmunology (PNI), depression, mindfulness, complementary medicine, and spirituality.
Mayo Clinic, USA
Malignant tumors have been treated with targeted radionuclides beginning with the treatment of thyroid cancers. More recently targeted radionuclides have been used to treat bone metastasis, lymphoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Many other treatment agents are under development for multiple types of cancer. Radioiodine treatment of thyroid cancer with iodine-131 targets the treatment to the tumor by using the tumor cell iodine symporter to deliver the therapy directly into the tumor cells. New targeted radionuclide treatment agents have used chemical binding, antibody binding, glass or resin embolization beads, or peptide receptor binding to selectively deliver the cytotoxic treatment to the cancer cells. Each of the target treatments agents uses a unique tumor specific localization method with a cytotoxic radionuclide. The radionuclides used are selected on the basis of the chemical binding, physical half-life, and path length of the therapeutic emission. Targeted radiation for cancer therapy allows the radiation doses to the tumor cells to be significantly higher due to lower radiation absorbed to the normal cells. As our knowledge of cancer cells increases we will be better able to more specifically deliver cytotoxic molecules including radionuclides to kill tumor cells and further improve cancer therapy.
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