The QN2A Project: Questions Into Answers for cancer patients and caregivers

Today, a dramatically different, public service online & social resource was launched for those facing cancer: The QN2A Project ("Questions Into Answers.")

With partners Stand Up 2 Cancer and Cancer Treatment Centers of America, and featuring James Denton of "Desperate Housewives" fame, the QN2A Project (www.qn2a.org) was created to offer patients and caregivers the "Big Questions" to ask their healthcare professional in order to accelerate and improve the best therapy for them. 

The web is full of answers and advice, but we believed that 

1. in the heat of the moment, people don't know the most helpful questions to ask their healthcare professional, and
2. everyone's journey is unique, so by offering the questions, versus the answers, they could get the personalized answers they truly need.

People can go to qn2a.org to get, share, and print the "Top Ten" questions for both patients and caregivers, vote on new ones, and, the most important feature-- those who have faced that moment can share the question(s) that helped them the most.

The campaign for The QN2A Project features a print ad which will run in major magazines (that, using mobius's optical recognition software, you can take a photo of and text to see a special video,) the website, mobile, social sites (facebook, twitter, google+,) banner ads, and a video with James Denton (that will be featured on "Access Hollywood"!) You can't miss it.

The goal is to make this a "Top Five" Online Resource for those dealing with cancer, so that more lives can get the best treatment possible.

To do that, we need your help. If you, or a loved one or friend, are facing cancer or have faced cancer, please share the word about qn2a.org (personally posting to your facebook page, tweeting, emailing, etc.), so that they can get questions from others that have helped, or leave questions to give others a potential new chance.

This campaign will continue to evolve as it grows, giving us even more chances to innovate.

With your help, it can become a crucial, life-changing, ongoing resource. 

www.qn2a.org

Personalized medicine continues to advance -- new cancer treatment offerings from Champions Biotechnology

A couple of years ago, we at Stinson Brand Innovation were developing a Strategic GPS^® for a client's new diagnostic instrument. A pivotal part of the insight was a vision of "personalized therapy." And we're seeing it come to reality more and more every day.

Champions Biotechnology, a company offering personalized cancer data for patients and physicians, has launched a new website: www.personalizedcancertreatment.com. The website details Champions' personalized treatment offerings for cancer patients and their physicians, including tumorgrafts, vaccines and expert oncology panels – all catering to individual cancer patients.


“Champions offers a more precise approach to cancer treatment, because every patient's cancer is unique,” said Doug Burkett, president of Champions Biotechnology, in a statement. “In partnership with one's physician, Champions optimizes a given treatment plan's potential for success and maximizes the patient's most precious resource: time.” The personalized tumorgraft, for example, uses a sample of the patient's living tumor in order to test treatment options “through simultaneous evaluation of the effectiveness of numerous anti-cancer drugs.”

The company is currently developing several of its own oncology products, but also has partnered with other biotechs including Centocor, ImClone, Concordia Pharmaceuticals and Gradalis. Personalized vaccines utilize tumorgrafts to predict a patient's immune system response to a given treatment.

If you're seeing other examples of personalized medicine, please share them in the comments below.

Video Games to Treat Cancer?

Not quite a treatment perhaps, but they do help fight it.

Two years ago HopeLab, a non-for-profit, released Re-Mission, a shooter game in which players destroy cancer cells. Pam Omidyar, a tech enthusiast with a background in immunology, came up with idea to get cancer-afflicted teens to stick to their meds.


Just this past summer clinical evidence was published showing that the game actually works. Patients who played for at least an hour a week were more likely to follow their drug regimen.

This is a breakthrough in innovation. Video games could possibly be applied to other diseases and conditions.