Pune Scientist’s Tech to Help Detect Early Spread of Cancer

PUNE: A simple blood test costing Rs 15,000 will soon help doctors detect the spread or relapse of cancer in patients, helping them to plan an efficient treatment module.

The test, based on a liquid biopsy technology called OncoDiscover, will help pick up circulating cancer cells in a patient’s blood much before they have affected or spread to other body parts.

Developed by Pune-based scientist Jayant Khandare, the diagnostic tool may also be used to plan treatment or to assess how well the existing treatment regime is working. “The test will be launched in a phased manner all over India from September. The long-term plan is to release the test in key global markets within the next few years,” Khandare told TOI.
Khandare is the chief scientific officer at Actorius Innovations and Research Pvt Ltd, a startup co-founded by him and Aravindan Vasudevan in 2013. The startup has been funded for high-risk innovation by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, an industry support wing of the department of biotechnology, Union ministry of science and technology.
Khandare said the technology was among the few laboratory-to-clinic translational researches, a rarity in India. “OncoDiscover can allow regular monitoring of disease progression. It can also help in providing an early indication for cancer relapse. It is a blood test that detects circulating tumour cells even when their presence is extremely low or minuscule in a patient’s blood,” he said.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, the regulatory body for drugs and medical devices, has already granted a licence for the manufacture and sale of the test kit in India under the Medical Device Rules, 2017.

Khandare says it is the second such technology in the world, after the one already available in the US. The Indian version would be far cheaper and more specific than the US one, he said.

“CellSearch, the US test for the detection of circulating tumour cells (CTCs), has been sold to Menarini Biotech by Johnson & Johnson. It has been available in the US since 2004 and has the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration. The test costs between Rs 84,000 and Rs 1 lakh and is not available in India,” Khandare said.
While both CellSearch and OncoDiscover work on a similar antibody-based affinity mechanism, the latter rapidly isolates CTCs using a patented polymeric multicomponent system that allows rapid and greater interaction, Khandare said. He claims it also achieves greater dispersibility in physiological solutions.
“The kit used for the OncoDiscover technology is a superior patented material, which is far more sensitive and specific than the CellSearch technology,” Khandare said.

Human clinical trials were carried out at the Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Hospital in 2018. “It is a completely indigenous technology and very inexpensive,” said senior medical oncologist Pankaj Chaturvedi , deputy director of Tata Memorial Hospital. Chaturvedi was the principal investigator of the trial.

“During the trial, we were surprised to find localised cancer cells in the blood of patients. For example, for an oral cancer patient the cancer cells were found in the blood,” Chaturvedi said.
The outcome of the clinical trial was published as an abstract at the American Society of Clinical Oncology at their 2019 meeting in Chicago.
Pune-based medical oncologist Anantabhushan Ranade said, “The concepts of liquid biopsy and CTC have been around for the last five years. If a Pune-based firm has been able to get the cost down, it will be a very big help to patients.”

Source: ToI

Image Courtesy: M3India