Greenwich-based firm adds technology to cancer treatments
GREENWICH — Stephen Aldrich’s symptoms began in the fall of 2016 — with back and chest pain that would arise and subside. With time, it grew more persistent.
In 2017, the Vermont man was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer. His doctors told him, “There was no hope, really,” and gave him four or five months to live. There was no cure for his kind of cancer, and all they could offer was palliative care.
But a trained biologist, Aldrich wouldn’t settle for such a dark reality and he took total control of his own medical care in a way that most cancer patients can’t.
Through his network of researchers, Aldrich learned he could ask for a piece of his cancerous tissue, which was extracted through a biopsy. The tissue sample would help identify nontraditional treatment options based on his unique genetic makeup and the particular genetic structure of his cancer.
He had genomic sequencing done to determine the composition of his healthy DNA to compare it to the cancerous DNA, which would help determine a
treatment, he said back in May.
With the help of an oncologist, Aldrich enrolled in a clinical trial for a specialized immunotherapy, a type of treatment that helps the immune system fight cancer, giving him the confidence to abandon chemotherapy. The trial effectively halted the progression of Aldrich’s cancer. He also designed and tested a personalized therapeutic vaccine for himself therafter.
In all, the then-62-year-old Aldrich survived three years longer than doctors had expected.
To expand that opportunity for others in his shoes, Aldrich founded a new technology company early last year to help other cancer patients find the kind of treatment options he used. Once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, the company, MyCancerDB will be based in offices in Greenwich.
The organization is mostly owned and controlled by latestage cancer patients, who want people dealing with incurable cancers to have easy access to their genetic health data, as Aldrich did, to identify the best alternative treatment options.
“We’re a technology company, and what we’re doing is enabling physicians and the health care system to do what they do better, through technology,” said Bruce Quackenbush, CEO of MyCancerDB, a Stamford resident.
The company allows cancer patients to “know more and do more” about their cancer diagnosis, by storing their genomic health data in the cloud, making it easily accessible through a desktop or phone.
A client would ask their doctor for a biopsy sample of their cancerous tumor, which MyCancerDB would then send to their “sequencing partner” for a genomic sequencing analysis.
Then, MyCancerDB would provide “useful analysis, so there’s an exact understanding of what’s going on and what’s gone wrong in (the patient’s) cells, that’s causing the cancer,” Quackenbush said.
“All that information is uploaded into a virtual vault that we keep for (the patient) in the cloud. That’s (the client’s) repository of health information that we can then use, and run analysis on,” he said.
“It spits out all sorts of information about what types of potential treatments may work for what (cancer the client) has — and that can run the gamut from just the basic chemo options. But it’s also going to identify all sorts of potential new drugs and also identify the possibility of whether or not some of these newer alternatives, like vaccines even, like Stephen (Aldrich) did for himself, might be applicable,” Quackenbush stated.
Patients enrolled with MyCancerDB have full control over their data, and can virtually invite a physician to view it in the cloud, rather than “running around” to various medical professionals for an opinion, which can be difficult for a sick patient, he said.
Clients may have already gone through the system of cancer care — perhaps undergoing chemotherapy or other traditional invasive treatments — and find that it’s not working for them or that the side effects are too debilitating, Quackenbush said.
Many oncologists, especially those located outside major cities, have been treating cancer patients for decades but know very little about MyCancerDB’s analysis and technology-based approach to treatment, Quackenbush said.
The new company is at the “proof of concept stage,” which means it must prove the concept works before lowering their prices and offering insurance reimbursement, said Melanie VenterRoit, a public relations and media consultant working with the company.
The cost to participate with MyCancerDB was originally $20,000, but that fee is expected to drop significantly, in line with the company’s objective to make the service more affordable, Quackenbush said.
Company leaders are reaching out to recruit interested cancer patients who wish to become members.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, MyCancerDB was planning to host a list of events to promote their new company.
Aldrich, who was set to present at many speaking engagements in the spring, was also planning to move some of MyCancerDB’s clients into a stage where they could begin accessing hard-to-get cancer vaccines.
But in July, Aldrich died unexpectedly after a regrowth of his tumor was treated with radiation.
“It’s really that, that he succumbed to, not so much the cancer, because the cancer had been, for a brief time, well-addressed and well-reduced, but the radiation went awry,” Quackenbush said, “meaning (Aldrich) was overdosed” with radiation.
“Radiation can be very deadly, if it’s not used very carefully,” Quackenbush continued. “It knocked back (Aldrich’s) tumor but also basically disabled his liver. ... In many ways, what that does is, it further amplifies the mission that we’ve been on to provide safer, more personalized therapies.”
To contact MyCancerDB, visit www.mycancerdb.com/.