Cancer Driver Interception
Read the years before a diagnosis.
HELIXAFE is a physician-guided blood program. It reads the changes your cells acquire across more than 50 tumor suppressor genes, then follows them over time, so you and your physician can see whether they hold steady or start building while there is still nothing to find.
Keep every screening recommended for you. HELIXAFE does not replace any of them.
One program, four ways to follow it
The full panel
HELIXPAN
For adults who already do every screening recommended for their age and want one more reading: molecular, repeated, followed for life like blood pressure.
- 50+ tumor suppressor genes
- Reference, then direction
- Physician-guided
- Who it is for
- Adults who follow their health closely
- What it is
- The complete reading, repeated over time
The digestive field
HELIXGUT
For people living with a known digestive condition between checks: reflux and Barrett’s, removed polyps, pancreatic cysts, fatty liver, a past H. pylori infection.
- Between colonoscopies
- Alongside your gastroenterologist
- Who it is for
- Adults followed for a digestive condition
- What it is
- The reading, interpreted for the digestive field
After lung cancer
HELIXLUNG
For people treated for lung cancer and in follow-up, who want to see what is changing between one scan and the next.
- Between follow-up scans
- Alongside your oncologist
- Who it is for
- Adults in follow-up after lung cancer
- What it is
- A reading that complements your scans
After breast or ovarian cancer
HELIXGYN
For women treated for breast or ovarian cancer who live with the fear of its return and want to follow what is building between checks.
- Between mammograms
- Alongside your oncologist
- Who it is for
- Women in follow-up after breast or ovarian cancer
- What it is
- A reading that complements your follow-up
Read in every test
tumor suppressor genes: the systems that repair DNA and stop damaged cells
Sample
of blood, drawn by a nurse at your home
Laboratory
sequencing and analysis in Boston, Massachusetts
Science since
Bioscience Institute, the group behind HELIXAFE
What makes it different
Three questions you can ask about cancer. HELIXAFE answers the one nobody could.
Hereditary testing reads what you were born with. Screening looks for what is already there. HELIXAFE reads what your life has added, in the years in between.
What did I inherit?
Hereditary cancer testing
Looks for cancer-related variants passed down from your parents. You were born with them, they can raise lifetime risk, and they never change.
What is happening now, before there is cancer?
HELIXAFE · Cancer Driver Interception
Establishes your reference for the changes you acquired during life, then follows them: holding steady, building, or building faster.
Interception vs preventionIs there cancer to find?
Screening and detection
Mammograms, colonoscopies, scans and detection tests look for cancer, or for the abnormalities just before it. Keep every one recommended for you.
Reference, then direction
A snapshot tells you where you are. A line tells you where you are going.
Your first test tells you where you stand today and becomes your reference. The tests that follow show whether the changes hold steady, start building, or build faster. One test does not make a Cancer Driver Condition: a pattern across repeated tests does, and even then it is not cancer.
High cholesterol drives heart disease. A Cancer Driver Condition drives cancer. You have been checking one for life. The other has never been readable.
What HELIXAFE reads
Your cells have brakes. HELIXAFE reads whether they are holding.
Tumor suppressor genes repair damaged DNA, decide when a cell may divide and stop a cell that is too damaged to fix. When those brakes weaken while damage keeps building, cancer can follow, years before a scan could see anything.
How it works
Not a one-time blood test. A program you follow with your physician.
First you establish your reference. Then you follow what happens. Your physician reads every result in the context of your health and decides what comes next.
The full programStart online
See how HELIXAFE works, what it reads and what it cannot tell you. Share your health information; a physician reviews it and confirms whether it is right for you.
Blood draw at home
Once prescribed, pick a day and a time. A nurse takes the sample at your home and it travels to our laboratory in Boston.
Establish your reference
Your first test reads the changes across more than 50 tumor suppressor genes. It tells you where you stand today and becomes your reference.
Continue your program
Your physician decides when you test again, based on your result and the program protocol: a few months, or longer.
Test again
Now there is a direction. Have the changes held steady? Are they building, or building faster? Is a pattern forming?
Decide with your physician
If the pattern holds, you keep watching. If it changes, your physician decides whether closer follow-up or further evaluation makes sense.
Science library
The conditions that can drive cancer, explained.
Genomic instability is the main driver: the build-up of acquired mutations when tumor suppressor genes stop repairing DNA. Around it sit chronic inflammation, the balance of the immune system and the gut microbiota.
Genomic instability
The progressive accumulation of acquired (somatic) mutations when tumor suppressor genes stop repairing DNA damage.
- Assessing genomic instability
- Analyzing cfDNA
- Somatic mutation and the prodromal stage
- Molecular pathology in prevention
Inflammation
Chronic, low-grade inflammation as a condition that can drive tumor development.
Start readingGut microbiota
Dysbiosis of the intestinal flora and its links with inflammation, immunity, ageing and cancer.
- Dysbiosis
- How it is linked to cancer
- How to analyse gut microbiota
- Microbiota and Aging
- Microbiota and Cancer Development
Telomeres
The ends of chromosomes, their shortening with age and their role in genomic instability.
- Structure and functions
- Telomere shortening and cancer
- Telomere Shortening and Genomic Instability
- Telomeres in cancer
- Longer telomeres and cancer
For physicians
A longitudinal, operator-independent reading, delivered as a protocol.
Baseline, cadence decided by result, molecular-pathologist counselling. HELIXAFE adds a trend to read alongside everything else you know about your patient. The clinical decisions stay yours.
Clear boundaries
What HELIXAFE is, and what it is not.
The limits matter as much as the findings. A Cancer Driver Condition does not mean you have cancer. Stable results do not mean you cannot develop cancer.
Questions and answersPhysician-guided
A physician reviews your eligibility, prescribes the test and reads your results alongside the rest of your health.
Not hereditary testing
Hereditary tests read what you were born with. HELIXAFE reads the changes you acquired during your life.
Not a detection test
It is not hunting for a hidden tumor. It reads the years before there is cancer to find.
Alongside screening
Keep every mammogram, colonoscopy and follow-up recommended for you, whatever your results say.
HELIXAFE in 30 seconds
The questions people ask first
Short answers, in plain words. The full list is on the questions page.
What is HELIXAFE?
What is Cancer Driver Interception?
What is a Cancer Driver Condition?
Why does HELIXAFE read tumor suppressor genes?
Is HELIXAFE a hereditary cancer test?
Is HELIXAFE a cancer detection test?
Does HELIXAFE replace cancer screening?
When can I start?
News
From conferences, press and the program.
Press Release
La Prevenzione personalizzata dei tumori: “INTERCETTARE” i fattori di rischio
20 miliardi di euro l’anno: i costi per il cancro in Italia – Prevenzione attiva, la vera arma vincente
Nuovo approccio nella prevenzione dei tumori. In Italia il primo modello al mondo
Opening in the United States
Be first to hear when HELIXAFE opens.
Register for the US waitlist. About one email a week until we open, and only about the science. Until then, keep every screening and follow-up recommended for you.