Media Contact:
Alix Friedman
afriedman@hadassah.org
646-468-4269
JERUSALEM and NEW YORK CITY—Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center and Roche Israel have signed an agreement to provide personalized medical care to oncology patients in Israel, making Hadassah the first Israeli medical center able to offer precise, disease-targeted diagnosis and treatment at every stage of a patient’s illness.
Under the agreement, Hadassah will offer comprehensive genomic profiling using Roche’s AVENIO kit for solid tumor diagnostics as well as Foundation Medicine tests.
Hadassah, in addition to being the first hospital center in Israel to sign an agreement with Roche to use the company’s unique diagnostic model, is one of the first hospital centers in the world to do so.
"The implementation of the integrated model will enable us to provide patients with the most advanced and innovative diagnostic tests for cancer," said Dr. Yoram Weiss, Director General, Hadassah Medical Center. "This collaboration is the result of dedicated and concerted work by our team and Roche Israel's team to establish a unique model that positions Hadassah at the forefront of personalized cancer care in Israel and worldwide.”
Weiss continued, “Genomic testing for each patient will allow us to understand the molecular characteristics of the tumor and provide the most precise treatment available in Israel and offered through clinical trials, leading to the best possible outcomes. Furthermore, it will enable us to develop more AI-based tools to enhance patient care."
"The collaboration with Hadassah Medical Center is the fulfillment of the Roche group's vision in the field of personalized medicine and the company’s wish to make these tools accessible to medical centers in Israel," stated Netanel Amichai, CEO, Roche Diagnostics Israel, and Avi Danziger, CEO, Roche Pharmaceuticals Israel. "In addition to clinical advantages, this partnership will significantly advance scientific and research aspects of cancer management, potentially leading to further collaborative efforts that stem from this important milestone."
Dr. Eli Pikarsky, Director of Hadassah’s department of Pathology, commented: "Until now, only a limited number of cancer patients in advanced stages of the disease or who have not responded to conventional treatments have been eligible for genomic profiling. With this new collaboration, we can perform genomic profiling on every patient. That benefits the patients and significantly increases the data available on the disease at its various stages. Analyzing a large data set will give us a deeper understanding of each patient, the disease and the treatment.”
Dr. Aharon Popovtzer, director of Hadassah’s Sharett Institute of Oncology, added: "We are proud to provide cancer patients with the best molecular characterization and are convinced that doing so will immediately lead to an improvement in the quality of treatment for many patients. Additionally, this collaboration will allow us to develop innovative tools and offer many patients at Hadassah new drugs through clinical research. We are proud to stand alongside the world's leading cancer centers."
Comprehensive genomic profiling tests simultaneously allow the identification of all types of genomic alterations in a tumor, involving a large number of genes associated with cancer in order to understand how cancer develops and grows. The accurate diagnosis of genomic alterations through advanced and precise genomic tests enables physicians to design the right treatment for the right patient at the right time, avoiding unnecessary therapies and leading to the best possible outcomes.
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ABOUT HADASSAH MEDICAL CENTER:
For more than a century, Hadassah Medical Center, the Jerusalem-based hospital system owned by Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, has set the standard for excellence in medical care and clinical research in Israel. The expertise, experience and ingenuity of Hadassah’s doctors and scientists have resulted in innovative solutions in all areas of medicine, including therapeutics, diagnostic tools, medical devices and digital health. In 2023, Newsweek named Hadassah a world leader in oncology, the only medical center in Israel to receive that honor, and one of the world’s top hospitals in cardiology and smart technology.