Jeffrey Epstein, Science Philanthropist, and The American Cancer Society Tackle Genetic Resistance to Drugs. There are two common dilemmas in the treatment of cancer today: the first is that many therapies, including chemotherapies, radiation and other drug regimens, can debilitate healthy cells and tissue, to the point of killing the person before defeating the cancer. The second problem is that many cancer cells, responding to a prevention drug, can quickly mutate to become immune and more resilient. Due to recent advances in circulating tumor cell technology, conducted by Dr. Daniel Haber, Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Dr. Mehmet Toner, director of the Center for BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems and supported by The American Association of Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society and the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, this second problem of genetic resilience is being confronted head on. Over the last few years, Dr. Haber and Dr. Mehmet Toner have developed a simple blood test to detect circulating cancer cells (CTC's). Using a microfluidic chip, the test isolates cancer cells in the blood and allows them to be purified to analyze their genetic structure. Although many challenges remain in the test, the advantages have already made a huge impact on the treatment of cancer. To date, the test has identified more than 1,200 cancer-causing genetic mutations, the largest collection in the world. The findings have led to a host of cancer specific targeted therapies including the use of reversible and irreversible inhibitors, which have been highly effective in tumor reduction. For instance, Dr. Haber's team recently found that gastric adenocarcinomas, stemming from high-level amplification of the growth factor receptor gene c-MET, only respond to novel inhibitors of the MET tyrosine kinase, leading to the initiation of a genotype-directed clinical trial. The test can also help identify the specific mutation wi