Patients design cancer drugs via mouse ‘avatars’

Patients design cancer drugs via mouse ‘avatars’

Scientists often test drugs in mice. Now some cancer patients are doing the same — with the hope of curing their own painful disease.

They are paying a private lab to breed mice that carry bits of their own tumors so treatments can be tried first on the customized rodents. The idea is to see which drugs might work best on a specific person's specific cancer. Hundreds of people in the last few years have made "mouse avatars."

Several labs breed these mice but the main supplier to patients is Champions Oncology, a company based in Hackensack, New Jersey, that also operates in London, Tel Aviv and Singapore. Patients have a tumor sample sent to Champions, which banks it and implants bits of it into mice kept in a Baltimore lab.

Champions charges $1,500 to bank the tumor sample plus $2,500 for each drug tested in groups of mice. Most patients try three to five drugs and spend $10,000 to $12,000. Insurance does not cover the mouse testing; it's considered very experimental.

There is no evidence that using mice is any better than care based on medical guidelines or the gene tests.

Dr Andrew Gaya of Leaders in Oncology Care, a private clinic in London, looked back at how well mice performed in 70 patients whose outcomes from treatment were already known. About 70% of the time, tests in the mice suggested something that turned out to have helped the patients. And, if something had not worked in the mice, it almost never worked on a patient. Mouse testing takes several months, so patients usually have to start therapy before mouse results are in.

The mice may be best for cancers that have spread widely, or that have returned after initial treatment, to help figure out what treatment to try next.