Every patient is unique, and so is their response to different cancer therapies
Pear Bio uses a piece of your tumor tissue, grows it in the lab and tests a range of treatments on your tumor sample. We use that data to work with you and your oncologist to determine which treatment options are better at containing and killing your tumor cells.
About the technology:
We need a fresh sample of your tumor, and then we split that into 6 or more equal samples. We grow these microtumors in a 3D gel matrix that mimics the body’s environment on small plastic “chips”, and test a range of drugs against the different samples. We keep one as a control, so we can measure the relative effect of the different treatments, either alone or in combination with each other, on each microtumor. We then image the chips at the start, and on days 1, 2 and 3. We use computer vision software to help us track the cells over time, and then produce a report that shows what proportion of the cells are alive or dead, and their invasion over time, to determine which drugs are better at containing and killing your tumor cells. You can read more here.
This is a “functional precision medicine” approach: like other precision medicine approaches, it tries to better match patients to treatments, but unlike most existing technologies which look at genes to predict responses, we directly measure responses on your tumor sample.
This has two main advantages over existing approaches:
Firstly, genetically-based approaches predict responses; these predictions may be good (85% - 90%) but never perfect.
Secondly, functional assays are quicker: our turnaround time is 7 - 10 days, which is considerably quicker than most detailed genetic assays.
A summary of this approach in blood cancers is given here.
Clinical Trials:
We are running clinical trials to assess our technology. These are currently in breast, kidney and liver cancer, but lung and brain tumors are coming soon - see here for details.
Our trials start with us learning how to grow that tumor in our lab (it turns out that different tumors need different handling), and then testing drugs to check the right doses. Then we run an observational clinical trial, where patients have a biopsy and receive standard treatment, but we check that standard treatment, and some other ones, on our platform, to see if we can predict the results we see in real life.
As an example of this, our trial in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) takes an extra sample from patients with TNBC about to start chemotherapy given before surgery (“neoadjuvant” chemotherapy). They have chemotherapy and surgery as planned, we measure the response rate (the “pathological complete response rate”, pCR) in patients, and compare that to the responses we see on our platform to make sure we can predict the responses we see in real life.
The aim is to use our technology to predict which treatments might have a higher chance of response, but getting to the point where we can reliably do this, across a range of tumors, will take a while.
Access to our test:
Our test is currently at the research stage, and is not suitable for routine use. However, we understand that patients often face very difficult decisions in choosing treatments, and we are happy to have a discussion about whether our technology might be able to help on an individual patient basis. This is only available for patients with triple-negative breast cancer. If you are interested, please contact us with this form and mark your inquiry as “Early Access to Test”.