Nexus 2.0 Patient Access Programme

Nexus 2.0 Patient Access Programme

With population growth and aging, the healthcare system faces a rising global cancer epidemic with 14 million new cases and 8 million death annually.
Treatment can be challenging sometimes when two patients with the same type of lung cancer respond differently. By knowing the exact underlying genetic cause of the cancer in each patient, a personalized targeted therapy can pave the way to an effective therapy regime in the individual.

In the era of precision medicine, a patient can benefit from a prolonged disease-free survival with a treatment that is tailored to his/her individual genetic changes. The availability of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for lung cancer patients that target specific mutation has improved progression free survival from 15% to 35%.

However, access to targeted therapy is often hampered by limited tissue availability for multiple sequential testing and delayed results for patients who require immediate treatment. In view of these challenges, Subang Jaya Medical Centre, AstraZeneca Malaysia and Pfizer Malaysia have collaborated to launch the NEXUS 2.0 Patient Access Programme to support a multi-gene targeted next generation sequencing panel called NGS Express-Lung Panel (50 genes) for patients with non-small cell lung cancer in Malaysia.

NEXUS Program – accelerating next generation sequencing technology in nsclc

Under this initiative, the patients can gain access to a life-changing individualized, and targeted treatment for the lung cancer. The patients can benefit from a rapid genetic testing of their tumour in one to three days instead of two to three weeks as previously, at substantially reduced cost.

The discovery of specific genetic defects in lung cancer cells has allowed us to precisely target these cancer cells while sparing the patients normal cells, allowing us to realise the promise of precision medicine. The acquisition and deployment of this new technological platform in our facility substantially shortens the time from diagnosis to commencement of targeted treatment, which is extremely critical in the management of lung cancer, an otherwise fatal disease.