For patients

For most people, the subject of cancer is associated with fear. Many people are either confronted with cancer personally or else via someone within their family group. After cardiovascular diseases, cancer is the second most frequent cause of death and is therewith of enormous magnitude. At present, three million new cases of cancer and 1.7 million deaths from cancer are being registered in Europe every year. Experts estimate that the number of cancer diseases will have risen by 30 percent by 2050.

Tailored cancer therapy

Until now it has not been possible to determine, by means of the therapy, whether a patient will benefit from a planned cancer treatment or not. Why? Because to date no biomarker has been able to provide an individual prognosis as to which therapy works and which does not. For the first time ever, at the Medical University of Vienna it has now been possible to clarify how the p53 gene influences the response to a cancer therapy. Subsequently, a highly sensitive, standardised gene test has been developed for the analysis of the p53 gene – the Mark53® analysis. This gene test now makes it possible to define the substances that are likely to be effective on an individual tumour.

For the question, as to which patient responds to a therapy and which does not, is a crucial one!