Medical science has made great accomplishments in treating children with cancer. However, medical practitioners say that more research is needed. According to the latest statistics, more than 14,600 children aged 19 and younger were diagnosed with a form of pediatric cancer and 1,850 of these kids, according to the American Cancer Society, will die. ACS based their prognostics on the data compiled by the Alliance for Childhood Cancer. Thankfully, significant progress has been made in developing effective treatments for various types of pediatric cancers, according to Katherine Sharpe of the ACS. That means the chances of success in treating children with cancer will increase even more in the coming years.
Sharpe, ACS Senior Vice President, also stated that when they examined the situation regarding pediatric cancer treatments, they found out that more research is required to ensure that progress will continue. She also disclosed some encouraging facts about the survival rate of children that have undergone different kinds of cancer treatments. Sharpe revealed that the survival rate for children found with cancer during the years between 1975 and 1979 rose from 64 percent to 84 percent compared to the years between 2005 and 2011. Nevertheless, there is a great disparity in the children’s survival rate. One example is that of one type of brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. DIPG has nearly a zero five-year survival rate, says Sharpe. Therefore, there really is a need for more research in cancer treatment.
Here is where Eric Lefkofsky and his Tempus Labs can come in. Lefkofsky is the founder and CEO of
Tempus Labs which is a company that seeks to improve the ways by which cancer patients are diagnosed. The basic approach of Tempus Labs is to leverage extensive data analytics to facilitate cancer treatments. This company wants to take advantage of the latest sequencing of the human genome and the most advanced development in science and technology in this particular medical field. In other words, this company is encouraging data to infiltrate cancer treatment and thereby reveal the vast amount of data that comes from a huge medical system.
Lefkofsky is trying to gather all the data that he can get from his partners in the leading academic institutions as well as in the entire NCI-designated cancer centers around the country. He intends to use this massive information to diagnose cancer patients correctly. In other words, his main goal is to customize or personalize the treatment of cancer according to the condition and needs of the patient. He believes that in this way, he can develop the most effective cancer treatment and therapy.
Lefkofsky says that a great volume of data needs to be accessible to doctors. In terms of cancer treatments, they can still learn many things from this massive volume of information. It is precisely for this reason that he launched Tempus Labs so that all this massive data can be accessed by doctors who want to personalize treatments of their cancer patients. The primary goal of Tempus Labs is to introduce ‘personalized’ or customized cancer treatments. Lefkofsky want to do it through gene-sequencing and data analysis.
Aside from being the owner of Tempus Labs, Lefkofsky is also a philanthropist. He and his wife established the Lefkofsky Family Foundation which is funding high-impact projects in art and culture, basic human rights, education and medicine.
