DiaTech Oncology Names Dr. Cary Presant Chief Medical Officer

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DiaTech Oncology, a Nashville company that offers patient-specific cancer testing, has named Cary Presant, M.D., F.A.C.P., as chief medical officer. In addition to serving as CMO of DiaTech, Dr. Presant is a professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and a staff physician at Wilshire Medical Group. Dr. Presant previously held the position of director of oncology at DiaTech. Due to the company’s rapid growth and continued success of its clinical trials, Dr. Presant has assumed an expanded role at DiaTech as the newly named CMO.

“As CMO, Dr. Presant will continue to advance the use of our MiCK assay for patient-specific cancer testing. He will communicate DiaTech’s benefits and clinical updates with his oncologist colleagues and others, and help lead the activities of our medical advisory board”

“Dr. Cary Presant is a nationally renowned hematologist and medical oncologist who has helped countless cancer patients through his tireless research and dedicated medical practice. He is a strong believer in the power of DiaTech’s technology to ensure cancer patients receive the best chemotherapy treatment the first time, and we are proud he has taken on an expanded role with the company,” explained Garry Latimer, DiaTech CEO.

The DiaTech patented MiCK (short for Microculture Kinetic) assay, or test, reliably predicts an individual cancer patient’s response to different chemotherapy options prior to treatment. In the MiCK assay, tumor cells are exposed to multiple doses of several chemotherapeutic drugs. An algorithm monitors and computes the amounts of cell death caused by each of the drugs and establishes a drug-sensitivity “score” of the patient’s tumor cells. This allows the oncologist to prescribe chemotherapy that would be the most effective against that particular patient’s tumor cells.

“As CMO, Dr. Presant will continue to advance the use of our MiCK assay for patient-specific cancer testing. He will communicate DiaTech’s benefits and clinical updates with his oncologist colleagues and others, and help lead the activities of our medical advisory board,” continued Mr. Latimer.

“DiaTech’s is the only test on the market that reveals to the treating oncologist the most effective chemotherapy for inducing cell death in the malignant cells of a particular patient. As our recent clinical studies show, the MiCK assay can guide use of dominant therapy in individual patients, leading to longer survival times and lower cost. I’m honored to take on this larger role with the company as CMO and look forward to our important work in helping oncologists and patients,” said Dr. Presant.

> Video resource: Learn about the benefits of DiaTech from Dr. Presant

Dr. Presant is the author of more than 400 scientific articles and is a recognized expert in cancer treatment and detection, chemotherapy, experimental tumor biology and pharmacology, liposomes for cancer diagnosis and therapy, and measurement of quality of life in cancer patients, among other areas.

He has written “Surviving American Medicine,” soon to be published, and is a physician columnist for medscape.com. Because of his commitment to early diagnosis of cancer, Dr. Presant was appointed by Fran Drescher to the board of directors of her charitable organization, Cancer Schmancer. For more information on Dr. Presant, visit the DiaTech website.

Other members of the DiaTech medical advisory board include:

Franklyn G. Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D., Chair, DiaTech Medical Advisory Board

• Director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine at the Mayo Clinic (on staff at Mayo Clinic since 1977)
• Member of the board of directors of Eli Lilly Company, Infectious Disease Research Institute and National Academy of Sciences

Martin Fleisher, Ph.D., Member, DiaTech Medical Advisory Board

• Chief of the Clinical Chemistry Service and director of the Biomarker Discovery Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York
• International expert in the discovery and use of tumor markers and biomarkers for detecting and monitoring various types of cancers

Roy S. Herbst, M.D., Ph.D., Member, DiaTech Medical Advisory Board

• Leads medical oncology at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven and was previously with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Best-known for his work linking genetic abnormalities of cancer cells to novel therapies

Allan E. Hallquist, M.D., DiaTech Pathologist Medical Director

• Board-certified by the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Pathology, Anatomic and Clinical Pathology
• Directs all research and testing activity at the DiaTech Oncology laboratory

Serge Massé, M.D., DiaTech Medical Director Pathology, Canada

• Pathologist at Fleury Hospital in Montréal and past president of the Quebec Association of Pathologists
• Certified in anatomical pathology by the American Board of Pathology, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the College of Physicians of Quebec

About DiaTech Oncology

DiaTech Oncology is a privately held clinical pathology laboratory that offers patient-specific chemotherapy testing to help oncologists determine the best cancer treatment plans for their patients. DiaTech utilizes a patented technology called the Microculture Kinetic (MiCK) assay, which measures apoptosis (cell death) induced in a specific patient’s cancer cells by chemotherapy. The only test on the market that evaluates the chemotherapeutic drug effect for a specific patient and can tell which chemotherapy drugs are most effective, the MiCK assay has successfully tested all types of cancer. For more information, call [phone]. Online: www.diatech-oncology.com