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Awali Hospital’s chief medical officer Dr Tariq Hameed is collaborating with a cancer research and testing facility in the US to help personalise treatments for patients in order to enhance and improve their quality of life.
Awali Hospital has partnered with major general Dr Shaikh Salman bin Atteya-Allah Al Khalifa, commander of King Hamad University Hospital and the Bahrain Cancer Centre on a Memorandum of Understanding between the Busaiteen-based clinic and the Nagourney Cancer Institute in California, founded by Dr Robert Nagourney.
He established Rational Therapeutics in 1995, which is now an Institute, providing personal cancer strategies based on how a person’s cancer cells respond in the laboratory. This eliminates much of the “guess work” prior to undergoing the potentially toxic side effects of drug regimens that could prove to be of little value against a person’s cancer.
“It’s something amazing,” said Rtd Major General Dr Tariq MD, FRCSI, FRCS, and the personal surgeon for His Majesty King Hamad.
The new agreement includes exchange of experience and coordination between Bahrain Cancer Centre and the Institute. Tumour samples from patients will be sent to the Institute for examination with cells tested by a range of drugs to find a more personalised method of treatment that will help in recovery and healing.
Dr Robert and his team have developed a laboratory technique called functional profiling over the past 20 plus years to measure how cancer cells respond when exposed to a wide variety of drugs and drug combinations.
To find the most effective treatment, living tumour cells are collected during biopsy or surgery. He grows the cancer cells in the lab and then they are pitched against different chemotherapeutic agents to see which treatment best works against those particular cancer cells.
