Cancer remains one of the top leading causes of death world wide. The World Health Organization estimated 10 million new cancer cases and 6.2 million cancer related deaths in the year 2000. The American Cancer Society has estimated 1.28 million new cancer cases, 555,000 cancer deaths, and an estimated public healthcare cost of over $50 billion per year in the United States alone. By utilizing newly identified gene targets generated by functional genomic technologies and taking advantage of the abundant clinical resources available in China, Shanghai Genomics has developed a series of novel cancer diagnostics and therapeutic products.
Early cancer diagnosis can significantly improve the chance of survival among patients. Tumor-specific antigens, proteins expressed on tumor cells but not normal cells, offer excellent cancer detection targets. Using functional genomics and immunology technologies, Shanghai Genomics has discovered several brand-new members of the tumor surface antigen family (RL). Some of these new RL members are secreted by tumor cells, making them ideal targets to develop early cancer diagnostic kits for.
Cancer vaccines show promising potential and represents the next generation of cancer therapeutics. They possess higher expected efficacy and lower toxicity compared to conventional radio- and chemo- therapies. Different from other conventional cancer vaccines, we have combined a number of newly identified tumor-specific antigens with a strong protein adjuvant to boost. This amplifies the immune system response that eliminates cancerous cells. The unique strategy will enable us to develop more potent multivalent vaccines compared to the conventional single protein vaccines. |
