ST. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) has set up the country’s first Human Cancer Biobank in a bid to possibly find a cancer-treatment protocol for patients by analyzing tumor specimens at the genetic material and molecular level.
The new facility, which would collect tumor samples from cancer patients to be studied not just by SLMC cancer experts but also from other medical centers here and abroad, is a groundbreaking attempt to find a cure for cancer, which has eluded the medical community so far.
SLMC President and CEO Dr. Edgardo Cortez said the facility for tumor specimens, which would be housed at the medical center’s Cancer Institute, is part of what the hospital has conceptualized last year “for a precise treatment options for patients.”
As envisioned, the Human Cancer Biobank Project would ensure individualized treatments based on their body and particular disease, and as borne by the studies of the particular tumors.
The project would also mean that patients can be tested to determine if they are prone to developing serious illnesses in the future and ultimately prevent this from happening by altering their genetic makeup.
Through a collaboration with other experts in the country and throughout the world, the St. Luke’s Human Cancer Biobank is the breakthrough project that will pave the way for invention and discovery of innovative methods of diagnosis and treatment of patients for a better tomorrow, SLMC said.