This Might Feel Like a Pinch

Despite her history, she was unable to get into the doctor’s office for her routine mammogram and was a full year behind schedule due to the Covid-induced backlog. But finally, she got an appointment. When the doctor called with concerning results, her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach. She had a special needs child to take care of and zero capacity for anything additional on her plate, let alone cancer. Yet again, she found herself in a round of biopsies where the surgeons took from 13 sites around her breast. Recovery was painful as she waited to hear back with little hope. A full month later, she received the bad news that she had aggressive metastatic breast cancer. Every day her treatment was delayed was precious.

Vera underwent months of chemotherapy. Horrific side effects followed: her hair fell out, her nails turned black, and she couldn’t shake a deep cough. Sometimes she couldn’t even get out of bed from the nausea. She wondered why God had let this happen to her after a life of giving to everyone around her. How could she support her needy family when she was so ill?

Her story is true, relatively common, and heartbreaking. But innovations in oncology diagnostics are changing the lives of many like Vera. One such example comes from a company pioneering blood-based testing for solid tumors, requiring only a simple blood draw to provide detailed analysis of a patient’s tumor. The sample is sent to the company’s labs where they test for “circulating-tumor DNA”— fragments of dead cancer cells floating in the patient’s bloodstream. Rather than requiring several weeks to get results from a biopsy or tumor sample, it takes only five days to diagnose and inform optimal treatment decision-making with a blood sample. The test conducts genomic profiling to discover which biomarkers are affected by the mutation, identifying targeted therapeutics that could improve outcomes versus standard treatment. A blood test is a much quicker, less invasive technique to garner this information than via a traditional biopsy. Unlike Vera, many patients do not have to suffer under generalized chemotherapy and can instead receive these gene-specific treatments, dramatically improving life quality.

This cancer-fighting business has seen an annual growth rate of around 20%¹ and is well positioned in the nascent minimum residual disease market. The majority of their revenue comes from identifying cancer types across a broad range of solid tumors. Large potential adjacencies also exist, particularly in asymptomatic screening for early cancer detection. Although a small part of their annual revenue today, they are seeking to make headway for those at risk of colon cancer who are averse to colonoscopies or lack access. If a patient shows signs of cancer from a blood test, they are much more likely to proceed to getting a colonoscopy to confirm the presence of a tumor and attack a cancer that is quite treatable if found early. That market is five times larger than the company’s current core business. They are also gathering significant amounts of data that could be monetized to support pharmaceutical research.

Thankfully, Vera is a blessed survivor. Her hair grew back in a patchwork of swirling black and grey, changed in texture and color by the chemotherapy she had undergone. For many, though, this is not how their stories end. Their families do not get to see what their new hair would have looked like. We believe that emerging solutions can help patients like Vera discover cancer earlier and respond faster so that their life quality and odds of survival can both improve dramatically. Early detection is the best form of defense: 5-year survival rates for Stage 1 colorectal patients are over 90%, compared to a 13% rate for Stage 4 patients. The more access patients have to low-barrier early screening, the better the outcomes. At Eventide, we seek to invest in companies like this which help to restore our world one patient at a time.