PATIENT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

LIVE TUMOR BANKING

What is Live Tumor Banking?

Live Tumor Banking is the collection, growth and storage of your living tumor tissue.

Tumors are typically stored through processes that kill the tumor cells and limit future testing options. Live Tumor Banking preserves and stores your living tumor as taken from your body AND utilizes a new process called “tumor grafting” to grow your living tumor in a manner similar to the way it grows in your body. This “Personalized Tumorgraft” process enables future testing that may help guide your treatment.

Cancers are unique to each individual. Live Tumor Banking and testing is a novel process that provides physicians with more information about your tumor and its likely response to a range of treatment options. This personalized approach to cancer treatment is designed to identify therapies that are specifically suited to your cancer.

Additionally, cancer risk is sometimes inherited; certain gene variations and mutations may be passed to future generations. By preserving your live tumor for future testing, you’re making a choice that could benefit a family member by making your tumor tissue available for all kinds of testing well into the future.

PERSONALIZED TUMORGRAFT IMPLANTATION PROGRAM

Is the Personalized Tumorgraft program like a clinical trial?

No. A Personalized Tumorgraft represents cutting-edge medicine. However, it is like an individualized, personal clinical trial customized for an individual patient. The added value of the Personalized Tumorgraft is that a patient can also contribute to the knowledge gained from clinical trials without actually participating in clinical trials, simply by providing their tumor tissue. A number of special studies can be performed on a surrogate for the person's tumor rather than on the person themselves, regardless of eligibility requirements for clinical trials. And, since Personalized Tumorgrafts are banked as living samples for future testing, the patient may have the benefit of additional testing opportunities when future drug discoveries are made.

What types of cancer have been implanted as part of the Champions Personalized Tumorgraft program?

The following cancer types have been implanted using the Champions Personalized Tumorgraft™ program: Pancreas, Sarcoma, Melanoma, Liver, Lung, Breast, Colon and other rare tumor types.

PERSONALIZED VACCINE

How do cancer treatment vaccines work?

(reference: National Cancer Institute)

Therapeutic cancer vaccines are designed to treat cancers that have already occurred. They are intended to delay or stop cancer cell growth; cause tumor shrinkage; prevent cancer from coming back; or eliminate cancer cells that are not killed by other forms of treatment, such as surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy.

Developing effective therapeutic cancer vaccines requires a detailed understanding of how immune system cells and cancer cells interact. The immune system often does not “see” cancer cells as dangerous or foreign, as it generally does with microbes. Therefore, the immune system does not mount a strong attack against the cancer cells.

There are many reasons the immune system does not easily recognize the threat posed by an already growing cancer. Most important is the fact that cancer cells carry normal self-antigens in addition to any cancer-associated antigens. Furthermore, cancer cells sometimes undergo genetic changes that lead to the loss of cancer-associated antigens. Finally, cancer cells can produce chemical messages that suppress specific anticancer immune responses by killer T cells. As a result, even when the immune system recognizes a growing cancer as a threat, the cancer may still escape a strong attack by the immune system.

What is the benefit of a Personalized Vaccine?

The Personalized Vaccine my help provide a patient the most personalized cancer treatment available, one that may help optimize the patient’s potential for a positive outcome.

PERSONALIZED ONCOLOGY PANEL

What is a Personalized Oncology Panel?

A Personalized Oncology Panel is a program that assembles world renowned medical experts from each of the disciplines that may be critical to a cancer patient’s treatment to assist the patient’s physician in determining the optimal personalized treatment options. This group meets in-person, and telephonically, to review the details of a patient’s case and makes consensus recommendations to the patient’s physician. The panel maximizes the options available to the cancer patient’s treating physician and help s improves the physician’s ability to evaluate the world’s most recent advancements and opinions to obtain the most successful treatment possible.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Why should I choose Champions?

Because every cancer is unique, Champions offers an individualized approach to cancer treatment – one that, in partnership with your physician, may optimize your treatment plan’s potential for success while maximizing your most precious resource - time. Simply put, this means if therapeutic success is not achieved initially, Champions’ services may provide more time for new drugs and treatments to develop for the benefit of you and your family. And, sometimes, more time can make all the difference.

How will Champions services benefit me?

Champions is expanding the frontiers of cancer therapy by providing access to unparalleled personalized treatment options for physicians and their patients. Champions provides services to physicians through real-time access to cutting-edge medicine, including landmark research, advanced testing of cancer tissues and respected insight into novel therapeutics and promising cancer treatments based on the very unique genetic characteristics of each patient’s own cancer.

What are the qualifications of the Champions experts?

Champions’ medical leaders are among the world’s most respected scientists in the field of cancer research. To view their biographies, please visit the “About Us” section of this website.

Is Champions affiliated with any cancer centers?

Champions works with experts from many leading cancer centers and has collaborations in place with some of the world’s leading cancer centers and institutions as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Why should I use Champions’ services rather than seeking opinions from the world’s leading cancer expert/center for an opinion?

Champions encourages patients and their families/friends to obtain as many opinions as they feel necessary. However, there are many leading experts and institutions for a given disease. Furthermore, leading experts may provide conflicting advice regarding the specific recommendations for an individual’s cancer treatment. The real advantage, and essence, of Champions’ Personalized Oncology Panel, is that it gathers the world’s experts in a round-table forum where the options are debated until the Panel provides your physician with a consensus treatment recommendation for your specific cancer that is designed to optimize your outcome.

I value my local physician. How will I interact with the Champions physicians?

Champions provides services to your physician to bring him/her cutting-edge access to medical and research information and therapeutic options that are customized to your particular disease. Champions does not provide any medical service or care and is not responsible for any medical care or treatment. Your physician is solely responsible for your medical treatment and care.

Does Champions provide direct patient care?
No. Champions does not provide any medical service or care and is not responsible for any medical care or treatment. Your physician(s) is (are) solely responsible for your medical treatment and care. Champions’ offers your physician real-time access to the latest advancements in personalized cancer research. Your medical team will consider the information provided by Champions and make the decision on which treatment strategy to implement and provide the direct care.

Are Champions’ services covered by insurance?
No. Champions’ provides personalized cancer treatment options tailored to your specific tumor. In order to provide you these cutting-edge services, at this time, Champions’ services are not limited by insurance reimbursement.

If you have a question or need additional information, please contact us at Hope@PersonalizedCancerTreatment.com