MEDIAN Technologies, a medical imaging software developer and service provider for image interpretation and management in oncology clinical trials, has announced the expansion of the company's relationship with START, a global Phase I oncology clinical trial organization, to include work in its Grand Rapids, MI and Madrid, Spain sites.
With two centers located in the US, two in Spain, one in China and one in Taiwan, START conducts the world's largest Phase I medical oncology program - putting more than 600 patients per year in Phase I trials. MEDIAN has been the sole provider of imaging services for START's San Antonio, TX site for the past two years. START's mission is to accelerate the development of new anticancer drugs that will improve the quality of life and survival for patients. The evaluation of medical images plays a crucial role in evaluating whether a patient is responding to therapy.
Expanding on the success of the MEDIAN-START relationship in San Antonio, researchers at START's Grand Rapids and Madrid sites will now also have access to MEDIAN's cutting-edge Lesion Management Solution (LMS) for image interpretation and management.
MEDIAN's technology provides START with best-in-class imaging tools to allow researchers to better assess patient response to therapy based on the implementation of standard imaging criteria, such as RECIST, and advanced imaging biomarkers, such as tumor volume and density. In the growing area of oncology drug research, imaging biomarkers provide early indications of efficacy and support data-driven Go/No Go decision-making, which is of critical importance in clinical drug development.
"We are very proud and enthusiastic about this expansion with START," said Fredrik Brag, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MEDIAN Technologies. "START's reputation for excellence and innovation through technology make it an ideal partner for us. We believe that our LMS application provides immense value for better assessing oncology patients' response to therapy in clinical trials. The addition of our LMS application to START's current capabilities will continue to bring tremendous combined value to the Phase I setting. Having accurate quantitative information from images helps sponsors make the right decisions regarding the pursuit of research on a given molecule, which ultimately benefits patients," he added.
"START is proud to expand MEDIAN's LMS application to more sites," said Dr. Anthony Tolcher, Director of Clinical Research for START. "This innovative imaging technology nicely complements our web-based real-time delivery of clinical trial data and will assist our clinical trial sponsors to objectively verify responses in real-time and, we believe, help many of them identify opportunities for breakthrough designation. Imaging has a growing significance in phase I oncology trials, so expanding LMS to our arsenal of innovative tools will provide sponsors with valuable data that will support not only the early phase decision making, but also help lay the groundwork for follow-on, late phase trials." Dr. Tolcher added.