is a medical technology company focused on the treatment of patients with metastatic cancer. Our lead product, the ViatarTM Therapeutic Oncopheresis System, removes circulating tumor cells from whole blood using label-free cross-flow filtration. Pending regulatory approval targeted for 2016, it will be used as a periodic therapy to improve overall survival for a wide range of solid tumor types suc
h as lung, breast, colon, prostate and gastric cancers. This proprietary technology also powers our liquid biopsy products, which are collection systems for use by genetic testing companies, researchers and medical oncologists that provide a greater quantity and purity of circulating tumor cells for their molecular analysis and personalized medicine objectives.
“Cancer, as we now know, is a disease caused by the uncontrolled growth of a single cell. This growth is unleashed by mutations—changes in DNA that specifically affect genes that incite unlimited cell growth…The secret to battling cancer, then, is to find means to prevent these mutations from occurring in susceptible cells, or to find means to eliminate the mutated cells without compromising normal growth. The conciseness of that statement belies the enormity of the task.” The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee (2010)
Nowhere is the dilemma of cancer research more profound than in understanding and interrupting the metastatic process, which accounts for 90% of the millions of cancer deaths each year. While considerable progress has been made in the decades-long war on cancer, there is a striking lack of good news in slowing down — let alone stopping — the metastatic process in solid tumor cancers.
