An Angiosarcoma patient facing a grave prognosis found a lifeline in a repurposed PD-1 inhibitor, a treatment hidden in the medical literature for three years.
Every Cure and its partners are building on this breakthrough, deploying innovative AI algorithms that evaluate the potential of every drug for every disease. The efforts have already begun to spotlight promising candidates for further study, transforming the way we approach medical treatments and patient care.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – August 2, 2023– A patient cured of angiosarcoma from a pioneering use of a repurposed PD-1 inhibitor is celebrating seven years of remission after the treatment was hidden in the medical literature before being discovered by Every Cure Co-founder Dr. David Fajgenbaum and his team at the University of Pennsylvania. Every Cure and its partners are developing medical databases and AI algorithms to ensure no potential cure remains overlooked among the vast number of medical studies.
In 2016, Michael was confronted with a diagnosis of metastatic angiosarcoma and given a prognosis of just three months. Fajgenbaum’s team unearthed a 2013 study indicating high levels of PD-L1 in three patients with Michael’s form of cancer and then confirmed the same results in Michael’s tumor. PD-L1 is a molecular strategy cancer cells use to avoid immune detection. The positive PD-L1 results in Michael’s tissue led to the pioneering use of pembrolizumab, a PD-1 inhibitor, used to treat other cancers, but had not been known to treat Angiosarcoma.
The impact was immediate. Just days after receiving his first dose of pembrolizumab, Michael experienced a profound change. “I received the treatment on a Friday morning, and by Monday I woke up pain-free, feeling better,” Michael recalls. A follow-up PET scan confirmed the success of the treatment: Michael was disease-free. He has now been in remission for over 7 years. “Michael became the first patient that we were aware of at the time to be treated with a PD-1 inhibitor for angiosarcoma. It’s now been used so many times in other patients and been so effective, that it is considered standard of care, and it’s recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network,” Fajgenbaum shares.
Every Cure is committed to ensuring no potential cure remains overlooked in the vast number of medical studies performed each year. To this end, Every Cure is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to scan through medical studies, databases, and expert insights to develop a pioneering algorithm that evaluates the potential of every drug to treat every disease. The Every Cure LinkMap has initially ranked all 3,000 FDA-approved drugs to treat all 12,000 human diseases, generating 36 million evaluations. Every Cure is currently analyzing the top results from its initial findings in its Every Cure LinkMap, in addition to consulting industry experts and patient organizations, to identify the most promising candidates to launch into clinical trials.
Every Cure, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is seeking additional funding to optimize its algorithms further and evaluate its highest-ranked results for direct patient application. The organization is also actively seeking partnerships for data contributions. “Michael’s story highlights the vital importance of our work,” said Every Cure co-founder and CEO, Grant Mitchell. “There are countless papers published that could hold the key to life-saving treatments for new diseases, yet this information often goes unutilized because the system is broken. Our aim is to develop a new algorithm that prioritizes the potential of every drug to treat every disease. We’re ensuring that no paper containing potentially life-saving insights will ever be overlooked again and no patient is told ‘we’ve tried everything’ when a life-saving drug is sitting on the pharmacy shelf.”
In the spirit of continuing our mission and to keep bringing potential cures to light, we invite everyone to join our cause. Every Cure relies on the generosity of individuals and organizations to fund this critical work to save lives like Michael’s, and every donation, regardless of size, brings us closer to a world where every potential cure is discovered and utilized. Visit www.everycure.org/donate for more information.
For further information or to express interest in partnering with Every Cure, please contact Brent Shaw ([email protected]).
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About Every Cure
Every Cure is a nonprofit organization dedicated to unlocking the full potential of every existing medicine to treat every disease possible. Repurposing existing drugs is the fastest and most efficient way to treat diseases with the greatest return on investment for saving lives. However, systemic barriers impede repurposing, so patients suffer while potential treatments are not fully utilized. Every Cure overcomes these barriers to systematically identify and advance promising repurposing opportunities and save lives. Every Cure is taking a revolutionary and disruptive approach to overcome these systemic barriers by developing a comprehensive, open-source data engine to generate predictive efficacy scores for all 3,000 drugs against all 12,000 diseases and rapidly advance treatments to patients. In partnership with academia, industry, and government, Every Cure is integrating proprietary and public data into a comprehensive dataset, optimizing AI ranking algorithms, validating the most promising drug-disease matches, performing trials, and ensuring patient access to effective therapies. Every Cure announced its launch in September 2022 at the Clinton Global Initiative.
For more information, please visit EveryCure.org or connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
About Every Cure’s Founders
Dr. David Fajgenbaum, Co-Founder, Every Cure
David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, is a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, co-Founder of Every Cure, co-Founder & President of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, and national bestselling author of ‘Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action.’ He is also a patient battling a deadly disease called idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD), which he discovered a treatment for that is saving his life and others. Through his work at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory, he has also identified and advanced 14 other treatment approaches for iMCD and cancer. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA. Fajgenbaum has published scientific papers in high-impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and The Lancet, been recognized with awards such as the 2016 Atlas Award which he received along with then Vice President Joe Biden, and has been profiled in a New York Times cover story as well as by Good Morning America, CNN, Forbes 30 Under 30, and the Today Show. Dr. Fajgenbaum earned a BS from Georgetown University, MSc from the University of Oxford, MD from the University of Pennsylvania, and MBA from The Wharton School.
Dr. Grant Mitchell, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Every Cure
Grant Mitchell, MD, MBA, is Co-Founder and CEO of Every Cure. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, operator and investor in the areas of health, technology, and machine learning. He has launched multiple health tech companies and operated in the CEO role in life science and tech organizations. Previously, Dr. Mitchell was a Principal in Analytics at McKinsey & Company’s artificial intelligence division, QuantumBlack. There he led teams that pioneered the use of machine learning algorithms and real world evidence databases to predict health outcomes in subpopulations by drug type. Dr. Mitchell was an integral part of the effort to support Dr. Fajgenbaum in the search for the cure of his own rare disease, and further collaborated with Dr. Fajgenbaum on the CORONA project. Every Cure is the culmination of Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Fajgenbaum’s experience in rare disease research, drug repurposing, and advanced analytics. Dr. Mitchell earned a BA in economics from New York University, MD from the University of Pennsylvania, and MBA from the Wharton School.
Tracey Sikora, Co-Founder, Every Cure
Tracey Sikora studied repurposed drugs in rare diseases, including Niemann Pick C, MPS I, Familial Hypercholesterolemia, and others. She led clinical trials by working alongside partners at biotech companies and rare disease organizations, developing study protocols that may adapt to the challenging realities of conducting clinical research in the real-world. Inspired by the innovative clinical trials launched for COVID-19 research, Tracey is bringing bold plans for efficient, well-executed clinical trials to our team. Tracey has a BS from Cornell University.