Cancer therapy evaluation
In order to evaluate therapy effectiveness it is important to have one or more parameters that describe tumor dynamics. Our research led to our method of calculation of tumor's growth rate, decay rate and doubling time - that is an estimate of how long it will take for the tumor’s quantity to double. Our results with data from tens of thousand of patients with many different cancers, together with a similar analysis conducted by the United States Food and Drug Administration in nearly 10,000 patients with lung cancer have found time and again that the pace (rate) of tumor growth is strongly associated with a patient’s survival. It follows from this that the lower the pace (rate) of tumor growth the longer will be a patient’s survival.
Our system uses data from patients regular tests either blood tests or from some form of imaging diagnostics that provide accurate size of the tumor. We need at least three data points from the same source.
Calculation of mentioned parameters is not enough, they must be considered in context - patient's race, age, medical condition, previous lines of treatment, etc. Having in mind that cancer treatment is a long process we've developed a system that:
- calculates parameters that describe tumor's dynamics. All the parameters are calculated in a way that allows direct comparison - no additional scaling or manipulation is necessary, regardless of the initial values and time between the tests;
- allows patients or doctors to compare current treatment with previous treatments. Very often subsequent line of treatment does not perform better than previous. If a current treatment performs better than previous, it is a good reason to keep it as long as it is possible;
- allows comparison with patients who are receiving the same treatment and with patients who are receiving the same treatment and who are in similar condition. We provide a tool that allows to finely tune what "similar condition means"