What is a personalized Champions TumorGraft?

A personalized Champions TumorGraft is Champions Oncology’s unique method of implanting and growing a fragment of a patient’s live tumor in mice. This technology is also known as mouse avatar or patient-derived-xenograft model.  This innovative solution preserves the distinct characteristics of your unique live tumor, creating a “clone” that is nearly identical to the tumor growing in your body.

Once the Champions TumorGrafts have developed, Champions will test anticancer drug regimens on the tumor-implanted mouse avatars. The Champions’ team works in conjunction with your physician in choosing the drugs tested, identifying the cancer treatment regimen most likely to positively impact your tumor.

How can Champions TumorGrafts help patients and physicians?

Champions TumorGrafts provide patients and physicians with a predictive model for how the patient’s tumor will react to various anticancer drugs and treatments. Studies have shown that a cancer treatment therapy that shrinks a patient's Champions TumorGraft in mice also has a higher likelihood of working against the tumor in your body^1,2.  Your physician will then be able to make cancer treatment therapy decisions based on real-world observations of how your own tumor responded to various anticancer drugs.

How have Champions TumorGrafts performed in the real world?

Almost all cancer patients who have received treatment guided by the testing results of their Personalized TumorGraft responded to the treatment offered to them by their physicians, with many seeing shrinkage of their tumor over a sustained period of time².

How does Champions get the patient’s live tumor for the implantation?

The Champions TumorGraft journey begins shortly before the patient’s surgery. While the surgeon removes or biopsies the tumor, a Champions Cancer Specialist will collect a tumor sample from the surgeon and transport it to our facilities. It is therefore essential that patients contact Champions and set up their Champions TumorGraft prior to surgery.

How long does the Champions TumorGraft process take? When can I expect my results?

Once the live tumor implantation has occurred, tumor growth and reproduction typically take about two to six months. This process ensures that there is an adequate number of mouse avatars for the drug evaluations. Each patient’s tumor is unique and tumors differ in their growth rates.

Thereafter, it typically takes another six weeks to perform drug study evaluations.