The Commissioner of Patents, Commonwealth of Australia Patent Office, has granted patent for OncoSec Medical Inc., a company developing the OncoSec Medical System (OMS) ElectroOncology therapies to treat advanced-stage solid tumours, a new Method of Use (Patent Application No. 2007224275, "Method and Device for Treating Microscopic Residual Tumours Remaining in Tissues Following Surgical Resection") for the company's OMS ElectroOncology treatment platform.
The issuance of this patent has the potential to expand OncoSec's market opportunities for minimally invasive and surgical procedures to treat solid tumours, as an adjunct therapy to earlier-stage cancers. Specifically, it allows OMS technology to be used to treat the margins of solid tumours following surgical resection.
One of the methods of treating solid tumours, which represent the majority of all cancer incidences, is surgical removal of the tumour along with removal of healthy tissue surrounding the main tumour mass. The purpose of removing this additional tissue is to ensure that peripheral cancerous cells are also eliminated in order to prevent recurrence. However, the removal of this healthy tissue may result in function loss and have potentially detrimental cosmetic effects. This jeopardizes a patient's quality of life.
OMS ElectroChemotherapy is an investigational therapy being evaluated to reduce the rate of cancer recurrence without quality of life side effects. As a potential adjunct to surgery, this therapeutic approach involves removal (using a scalpel) of the tumour mass, without removal of excess healthy tissue, followed by treatment with OMS ElectroChemotherapy. This approach has been shown to selectively kill cancer cells that may exist in the surrounding tissue, which may result in a reduced rate of recurrence and the potential to complement standard-of-care surgical procedures as an alternative to surgery alone.
Punit Dhillon, OncoSec's president and CEO, commented, "The issuance of this patent opens the possibility for improving surgical outcomes in cancer therapy. There is a tremendous unmet clinical need, especially for advanced cancer where recurrence rates associated with surgery remain high. Treatment of margin tissue with our therapy potentially expands the market for our product beyond those indications we are currently pursuing for the use of the technology. We envision that surgical margins could be routinely treated with our therapy, providing increased benefit to patients."