The PIONEER Initiative: Precision Insights On N-of-1 Ex Vivo Effectiveness Research Based on Individual Tumor Ownership (Precision Oncology)

The PIONEER Initiative is a lead clinical trial designed to provide the foundation for subsequent adaptive trials. The mission with this and subsequent trial activity will be to demonstrate the utility of carrying out functional precision medicine in that cohort of patients who receive local cancer care at institutions that do not have significant research capabilities or are not NCI-designated cancer centers. As discussed above, the vast majority of cancer patients (~85%) are in this category. It is imperative to open up the possibility of best-in-class functional precision medicine testing to these patients. Core aspects of the PIONEER Initiative include recruiting a cadre of up to 200 patients, showing that proof of concept in a more limited set of patients can ultimately scale to arbitrarily large numbers of patients. It is anticipated that PIONEER will continue as the foundation for subsequent clinical trials into the indefinite future. This evolving trial structure fills an important unmet need within the broader cancer community since the primary mission is the return of actionable information in order to positively impact care.

The underlying basic assumption of the PIONEER Initiative is that the ability to receive the best in cancer care should not be restricted as to location, age, or medical condition. The PIONEER Initiative design facilitates inclusion of subjects across all these divides, thus providing beneficence to all participants. A key aspect of the PIONEER Initiative is to provide patient benefit through a data and tissue biorepository to be utilized by researchers to discover new cancer diagnostics, treatment therapies and preventive strategies. Additionally, the data and samples will be used to improve existing treatments and to understand, at the molecular level, changes occurring during transition from illness to remission and/or relapse. SpeciCare, through the PIONEER Initiative, will store de-identified self-reported data, medical records, and biological samples from individuals who consent to participate in PIONEER. PIONEER will obtain further study and testing as appropriate and return results, through CLIA certified labs, through research vetted by CLIA testing, and, as enabled by current regulatory standards, through delivery of research results back to the patient and patient's clinical care team.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. To establish a data and tissue biobank comprised of high quality biological specimens and associated clinical data that will support drug discovery, diagnostic assay development, oncology biomarker discovery, molecular biology, immuno-oncology therapies, translational medicine and other future discoveries as novel methods become available.
2. To facilitate and accelerate oncology research, including genetic research (e.g. whole genome sequencing), by providing a pipeline of high quality specimens and associated clinical data for researchers to access.