Orthoxenografts®
Orthoxenografts® are mouse models in which a small piece of human tumor (xenograft) is implanted in the same organ of origin (orthotopically). Orthoxenografts® are Orthotopic Patient-Derived Xenografts (PDXs).
Orthoxenografts® are characterized by:
- Reproducing the histological, genetic and molecular characteristics of the original primary human tumor.
- Being the best scientific tools to predict tumors’ response to chemotherapy treatment.
- Offering treatment alternatives based on scientific evidence.
Xenopat will work in close cooperation with each patients’ oncologist. Patients’ orthoxenograft® will be expanded in a mice colony. All mice in the colony will bear the patients’ tumor in the same organ of origin. This colony will be treated with same first line chemotherapy as the one that was applied to the patient. At this point, two scenarios can occur:
- The patients’ orthoxenograft® does not respond to the first line treatment. In agreement with the oncologist, a wide range of candidate drugs and drug combinations will be selected and tested in different subpopulations of the orthoxenograft® colony.
- The patients’ orthoxenograft® does respond to the first line treatment. Once the tumors disappear, Xenopat waits until a tumor relapse occurs in mice. With this strategy Xenopat aims to reproduce the frequent relapse situation that occurs in clinics and is responsible for the failure of an important number of clinical cases. When the relapsed tumors grow, in close cooperation with the patients’ oncologist, a wide range of alternative treatments are tested in different subpopulations of the orthoxenograft® colony.
Results obtained in these studies get reported in an antichemogram. This document summarizes the best therapeutic alternatives observed in the patient’s orthoxenograft® colony and will suggest a Personalized Cancer Treatment based on scientific evidence.
Overall, the Personalized Cancer Treatment process performed by Xenopat takes between 4-8 months, depending on the tumor type and each tumor’s characteristics.
Tumors obtained through patients’ orthoxenografts® can be cryopreserved if the customer wishes so. Cryopreservation of tumors allows its recovery in case it needs to be reimplanted to study new therapeutic alternatives after a relapse. In the case of need, these new orthoxenografts® will be treated following the patients’ chemotherapy schedule. After that, and in agreement with the patient’s oncologist, a wide range of alternative treatments will be tested in different subpopulations of the orthoxenograft® colony.