• 6/8/2007
  • Houston, TX
  • press release
  • BusinessWire.com

poCell, Inc. presented the results of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and ApoCell at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held in Chicago in early June. The study showed that ApoCell’s advanced pharmacodynamic biomarker assay technology provides reliable predictive data of clinical response. This study showed the benefit of treating aggressive head and neck cancer patients with a combination of targeted molecular drugs.

Cancer treatment is evolving from the use of highly toxic systemic compounds to targeted molecular drugs that are safer and faster acting because they aim only at cancer cell structures and their bio-mechanisms. Pharmacodynamics is an evolving field that encompasses the study of the biochemical and physiological effects of drugs, the mechanisms of drug action and the relationship between drug concentration and biological effect.

ApoCell has developed an analytical tool, the PDx Index™ (Pharmaco-Diagnostic Index), which indicates the likelihood of whether a targeted therapy will elicit a clinical response. The predictive index in this study was derived by comparing the biochemical state of a cancer cell receptor that is critical to the process of angiogenesis or vascularization of tumors. This PDx Index™ of patients with head and neck cancer showed a direct correlation between the drug regimen and patient response. This new technology is applicable to predicting the clinical outcome of most molecular targeted cancer drugs.

Dr. Darren Davis, ApoCell’s President and CEO comments, “We have developed the PDx Index™ methodology to give drug developers, clinical investigators and oncologists a quantitative tool to predict effectiveness of cancer drug treatment. Recent research has demonstrated that different individuals respond differently to the same cancer drug therapy. By knowing a patient’s PDx Index™ score ahead of time, the physician can prescribe the right drug treatment that has the highest probability of success for that individual.”