Start-up researches individualized cancer treatments in their lab

Notable Labs remotely tests potential drug combinations on a sample of a patient's brain tumor, before reporting back to the patient's doctor.

Sadly, brain cancer patients currently have very few treatment options. Sufferers live with their condition for an average of 15 months and the mutating nature of tumors means that although there are multiple potential FDA approved drugs available, the trial-and-error process of finding the best possible combination for any given patient is both incredibly unpleasant and takes a problematically long time. Hoping to overcome this, Notable Labs is a medical start-up which takes a sample of the patient’s tumor and runs tests on it, finding the best drug combination and reporting back to the patient’s doctor.

Notable Labs was founded by Matt De Silva in an attempt to find a better treatment for his father, who was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme in 2013. Once a sample of a patient’s tumor has been attained, the San Francisco-based company uses a customized machine to test thousands of drug combinations in an effort to find effective treatment. To reduce the time needed for this already speedy process, Notable labs works with the predictive analytics of fellow start-up Atomwise. All of this is done without having to put the patient through multiple failed treatments.

All Notable Lab’s potential treatments are tested for safety, efficacy and tumor penetration — they are then evaluated by the patient’s doctor before being implemented. Are there other treatments which could be tested in this way?