It has long been known that chemotherapeutic drugs initiate in the drug-sensitive tumor cells a process of self-destruction, called apoptosis. Measuring the amount of the in vitro drug-induced apoptosis in a patient's tumor cells prior to the drug administration helps to select drugs to which tumor cells of the patient are sensitive and, thus, to increase the success rate of his or her cancer chemotherapy.

To measure drug-induced apoptosis, DiaTech utilizes a proprietary technology called Microculture Kinetic (MiCK) assay for apoptosis. In the MiCK assay, the tumor cells of an individual patient are exposed to multiple doses of several chemotherapeutic drugs. A sophisticated algorithm is used to monitor and compute the amounts of apoptosis caused by each of the drugs to establish a drug sensitivity profile of the patient's tumor cells. Knowledge of a patient's drug sensitivity profile allows the treating oncologists to prescribe chemotherapy that would be the most effective against the tumor cells of that patient.

DiaTech is currently the only laboratory offering automated kinetic measuring of apoptosis for clinical testing. To learn more about the unique features of the MiCK assay for apoptosis, please click here.