Voluntis, AstraZeneca to test companion app in ovarian cancer studies

Voluntis

Voluntis and AstraZeneca plan to launch a digital support service for women undergoing treatment for recurrent platinum-sensitive high-grade ovarian cancer in clinical trials of cediranib plus olaparib. The service, developed by Voluntis in close clinical collaboration with AstraZeneca and the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), will be delivered through a smartphone app paired with a web portal to help clinicians and patients manage side effects of hypertension and diarrhoea, which can be associated with combination therapy with cediranib and olaparib. Such side effects are traditionally described to care teams through manual, time-consuming and non-digitized channels.

The application will be tested as a companion device in three separate clinical trials sponsored by the NCI beginning in Q1 2016.The application will be tested as a companion device in three separate clinical trials sponsored by the NCI beginning in the first quarter of 2016, under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the NCI and AstraZeneca. The service will also serve as a pilot within AstraZeneca’s broader strategy of using digital technology to complement treatment and to improve patient outcomes.

“Empowering patients with this smartphone-based app gives them greater control of their treatment and management of their response,” said Antoine Yver, Head of Oncology, Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca. “The support it provides can further reduce medication dose modification and discontinuation rates and help maintain patients on therapy to improve their treatment outcome.”

Voluntis has previously teamed-up with Roche over a mobile therapy for breast cancer.