HCG announces new diagnostics for cancer treatment in India

These diagnostic tests will support physicians and their patients with the most accurate and advanced tumor profiling of large number genes for “actionable” mutations. 

 

The information about these mutations helps to identify targeted therapies and treatment choices early in the course of cancer care.

Triesta Sciences, unit of HCG,  is partnering for cancer genomics with Strand Life Sciences, a pioneer in the field of clinical genomics, to set up a new  centre for genomics called ‘Strand-Triesta Centre for Cancer Genomics’ (Strand-Triesta) with the aim of making genomics based diagnostics effective, accessible and affordable. 

 

Strand-Triesta will enable the world’s largest adoption of genomics-based tumor profiling for HCG patients. HCG will lead the way by adopting the Strand-Triesta advanced cancer diagnostics as a new standard that defines the future of cancer care. The partnership will also bring to bear the respective strengths of both organizations: Triesta sciences and Strand – a global pioneer in new generation clinical diagnostics.

There is a rising healthcare burden of cancer in India with current estimates of a million cases of cancer being reported each year with mortality close to 500,000. 

 

It is expected that the number of incidences of cancer will rise five-fold by 2025 thereby increasing the healthcare burden. Against this backdrop, the new ‘standard-of-care’ would help meet the growing cancer ‘epidemic’ which the country is combating. 

 

The new standard-of-care aims to achieve new frontiers in medicine by introducing concepts like ‘bench to bedside vision’ wherein physicians and patients will have ready access to advanced innovation and discovery right at the bedside.

Sequencing of tumor using next generation sequencing (NGS)  technologies, and thorough analysis of individual patient’s DNA variations will help physicians go beyond a ‘one size fits all’ model of cancer therapy. Such personalized approaches will improve response rates and effectiveness of targeted, chemo- and radiation therapies. Further, genomic tests can detect hereditary risk in family members of cancer patients.

Dr. B S  Ajaikumar, Founder, Chairman , HCG Enterprise, on this occasion, said “HCG’s has been in the forefront in redefining cancer care. We will now incorporate genomic testing which is personalized and will be the future of cancer care. This will help oncologists in clinical decisions and help our patients receive targeted individualized therapies that will improve diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. We are pleased to partner with Strand Life Sciences, which through its expertise will offer comprehensive genomic tests for cancer and other germline conditions at affordable rates to our patients. Through this partnership between Triesta Sciences and Strand Life Sciences we hope to enhance the work done by multi- disciplinary team of eminent and established oncologists. With this HCG joins a select group of advanced cancer care centres.”

A new generation healthcare innovation company, Strand, has a distinguished team of over 200 scientists and researchers working to create novel solutions in genomics and personalized medicine. Strand has brought together the best-in-class computational and biological sciences to bring precision genomics to advanced clinical solutions for healthcare institutions. Strand Life Sciences has developed cost effective, next generation genomic tests, through a decade of R&D innovations. Further research on molecular profiles of patients will help establish new targets for the development of targeted cancer drugs, specifically for the Indian population.

Talking about this partnership, Dr. Vijay Chandru, Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences said, “Strand is committed to expanding clinical genomics as a new paradigm for clinical decision support. The coming together of HCG, Triesta and Strand will result in achieving a scale of adoption of genomic testing, which is unprecedented even in the West. This scale enables affordability, but more importantly, the more cancer genomes we profile, the deeper the insights about cancer we gain. Deeper insights lead to informed decisions in cancer care. ”