Amwise Diagnostics
Leading the Precision Medicine Approach to Cancer Treatment

Sean-lin Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Amwise Diagnostics, doesn’t have a typical startup story but the immense barriers he faced made his business possible. Back in 2010, while working in London, Huang found a lump on his neck. After doctor consultation, it was revealed that Huang had stage III nasopharyngeal carcinoma. He returned to his hometown Taiwan for treatment; as a part of his therapy, he went through chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and experienced all of the side effects of the treatments. This prompted him to conceptualize the idea to start a business that strives to improve the health and well-being of cancer patients and help create new hope for life.

With his partner, a Duke professor, Huang established Amwise Diagnostics in 2016 to assist physicians and patients in determining the most appropriate personalized treatment strategy that has optimal efficacy and minimal adverse events. “We have created a patented genetic analysis and detection technology, RecurIndex that identifies patients with a definite high risk of recurrence or metastasis, allowing timely administration of necessary treatment, specifically for breast cancer,” explains Huang. “RecurIndex makes it easy for physicians to assess the necessity of a patient to be supplemented with radiotherapy or chemotherapy.” The firm focuses primarily on genomic profiling and biomarker development.

The issue with the medical diagnostic techniques currently used for breast cancer is that they lack the ability to distinguish between high-risk and low-risk patients. Consequently, the same intensity of treatment is given to each patient, causing some individuals to experience unnecessary side effects.

Based on the Asian gene pool, RecurIndex identifies the high and low risk of distant metastasis and local recurrence, and provides more comprehensive services for the majority of breast cancer patients by taking into account the patient’s age, gene expression profiling, tumor size and other clinical and pathological manifestations.

Furthermore, it helps doctors and patients to formulate appropriate plans for postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. RecurIndex, which has undergone large-scale clinical validation since it was first developed, integrates genetic mapping of the genes most related to breast cancer recurrence in Asian patients with clinical factors to predict the five-year risk of local recurrence and distant metastasis. The test results help doctors and patients have a clear understanding of cancer characteristics and serve as an essential reference in determining appropriate treatment. “In other words, we are trying to lower the cost barrier for cancer patients by leveraging precision medicine technology,” asserts Huang.

Highlighting the efficacy of RecurIndex is Amwise’s recent success story of a pregnant woman who had breast cancer. “By predicting postoperative recurrence risk using our assessment tool and providing scientific data on the same, we helped her oncologist determine the best treatment based on her condition,” informs Huang. While Amwise’s biomarker technology’s applicability currently spans breast and pancreatic cancer, the firm is slowly expanding research into the field of colorectal and ovarian cancer, with the hope of helping more cancer patients in the future.

To date, the company has conducted around 20 clinical trials in Asia focusing on early breast cancer patients. The firm has a strong presence in Singapore, Taiwan, and Mainland China. Amwise’s key investors include prominent names such as Alibaba Group and the Lippo Group. “Through strategic partnerships and investment links like these, we have formulated our plans for the Asian region and have started to plan our entrance into Europe and the United States,” states Huang. Besides, Amwise actively seeks scientific validation and clinical collaboration with top hospitals in China, and promotes accurate treatment of breast cancer and establishes a multi-gene detection database for breast cancer among Chinese patients. Alongside, as a part of its plan for the future, the company is looking to leverage its connection in the Southeast Asian region to enhance its footprint into countries like Japan and Korea. “We envision our technology benefiting a greater number of patients, leading precision medicine in cancer to the next milestone,” wraps up Huang.