Wife’s Battle With Cancer Leads Tech Entrepreneur to Take Action in Finding a Cure

Chase Clements
·2 min read

TMX contributed to this article. McClatchy is compensated as a part of our syndication partnership with TMX. McClatchy's Commerce Content team, which is independent from our newsroom, oversees this content.

Roy de Souza’s journey into the world of biotech began after his wife was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017.

At that point, de Souza decided to learn everything he could about the illness, but also to find a solution. “I decided I had to learn the technology, had to learn about cancer, and do online courses. And to talk to the experts, they want you to know what you’re talking about, so I started learning.”

De Souza’s wife passed away in 2020 but de Souza has turned this tragedy into action with BreakBio Corp., which is now at the forefront of cutting-edge biotech clinical trials and research, focusing particularly on the development of innovative personalized treatments for metastatic and abdominal cancers, including colon and rectal cancer. BreakBio stands out for its FDA-approved trials that utilize advanced technology and artificial intelligence to design and create cancer drugs for each patient.

Recently, BreakBio Corp. has FDA approval for two randomized, controlled clinical trials, one with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and one with Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, planning to start this summer. And the company is discussions with other hospitals as well. These will be randomized, controlled trials, aiming to start in June of this year.

“We all know that the problem is that the cancer cells are different in different parts of the tumor and different in different patients. So we just need many different drugs. Thanks to machine learning this can actually be done — but it needs someone to really dig in and get it done as there are always skeptics. And it can be done,” de Souza said.

De Souza’s work has been honored by the American Cancer Society and he has appeared in many media outlets. “I think it’s only when you shoot for big things, you can achieve big things.”