Strand Life Sciences, a global genomic profiling company that uses next generation sequencing technology to empower personalized cancer care, announced the India launch of StrandAdvantage, a cancer tissue-specific genomic profiling service to provide oncologists with clinically actionable and timely results for first-line therapy decisions.

The newly launched service accelerates the analysis of therapeutically actionable cancer genes in solid tumors, and matches them to relevant National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)-recommended cancer therapies, enabling timely decisions for patient-specific treatments.

StrandAdvantage provides oncologists with clinically actionable tissue-specific results for non-small cell lung, breast, and colon carcinomas in a standard-of-care report within 10 working days.

Strand's NGS-based genomic profiling service provides a comprehensive view of genomic changes in an easy-to-read report enabling oncologists to make optimized, first-line treatment decisions.

The service also provides an extended investigational 'on-demand' report after 15 days for cases that require a complete workup of all major gene variants and pathways known to be impacted by existing targeted therapies.

Mr Scott A Storrer, global CEO and president, said, "StrandAdvantage will provide oncologists with cancer tissue-specific genomic information about their patients' solid tumors and help in guiding first-line therapy decisions. Our genomic profiling service enables the patient to start treatment in days instead of weeks by quickly providing relevant, clinically actionable results. The extended StrandAdvantage report provides an unmatched depth of analysis that includes cancer subtype as well as tissue type."

Cancer is a disease affected by multiple variations within genes. Information from single gene tests is often limited and oncologists increasingly want greater depth of information about patients' tumors.

StrandAdvantage tests all the relevant genes upfront, thereby helping the oncologist select a targeted therapy for first-line or subsequent treatment.

Following the launch of StrandAdvantage, the company announced the appointment of Dr Sudhir Borgonha as SVP and medical director to lead the personalized medicine business in India.

Dr Borgonha will be responsible for developing the nascent genomic testing market for oncology and rare diseases.

Dr Borgonha has held senior positions in industry including global medical director at Martindale Pharma and Embrace Innovations, and CEO at Triesta Sciences and Translational Medicine, Inc.

Earlier in his career, he worked as a scientist at the Harvard-MIT Clinical Research Centre.

He is a graduate of St. John's Medical College, Bangalore and the Sloan School of Management, MIT.