Zydus Lifesciences, a global innovation driven healthcare company announced that it will be exclusively marketing CanAssist Breast, an innovative and a highly advanced prognostic test for breast cancer patients in the early stages to help clinicians decide whether the patient needs chemotherapy or not.

Out of 2.1 lac breast cancer cases in India, almost 50 percent are hormone positive. In the absence of such prognostic tests, many patients undergo chemotherapy which may not help them. However, with the aid of CanAssist Breast and its precise findings, clinicians can avoid chemotherapy for their patients based on scientific evidence. OncoStem has developed this test after five years of research and has generated a lot of data on patients suffering from breast cancer in India and across the world.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women in India and its risk increases with age. It is estimated that 1 in 29 women in India has a risk of developing breast cancer in her lifetime. Hormone receptor positive is the most common subtype of breast cancer and there are estimated 65000 new cases of early stage hormone positive breast cancer that get diagnosed every year. This test can help them to balance their treatment plan in terms of effect, cost and quality of life. There are no such tests currently performed in India. Clinicians send tissue samples to the US to avail similar test resulting in high cost burden and potential delay in treatment plan.

CanAssist Breast is a test to optimize treatment selection in early stage (I & II) hormone receptor positive, HER2 receptor negative type of breast cancer. It determines the patient’s risk of breast cancer recurrence and classifies patient as ‘low risk’ or ‘high risk’ using proprietary Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning methods. CanAssist Breast spares patients of physiological toxicity and is also patient-centric in terms of affordability as it is being made available at 80 percent lesser than the cost of global tests.

Speaking on this development, Dr. Sharvil Patel, Managing Director, Zydus Lifesciences Ltd. said, “Zydus has been at the forefront of providing access to innovative and affordable therapies which also helps improve the quality of care for cancer patients in India. With this new offering we expand our offerings to include prognostic and diagnostic approaches that can greatly benefit cancer patients and clinicians. As a company dedicated to science, innovation and health, we are constantly looking at ways to empower people to live healthier and more fulfilled lives.”

Dr. Manjiri Bakre, CEO and Founder, OncoStem Diagnostics, said, “Cancer treatment has moved away from a ‘One size fits all’ approach. At OncoStem, we believe that every cancer patient must have access to personalised treatment approach to get optimum treatment. OncoStem’s flagship product CanAssist Breast was developed with an intent to empower eligible early-stage breast cancer patients to get ‘optimum’ therapy with improved quality of life.  This exclusive partnership with Zydus is a huge step in our goal to serve every eligible breast cancer patient in India.  We look forward to a productive partnership ahead”