Elephas, an oncology-focused diagnostics platform, announced it secured $55 million in Series C funding, bringing its total raise to $116.5 million. 

Venture Investors Health Fund and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) led the round. 

Existing investors Northpond Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, WARF Ventures, Tao Invest, Sands Capital and ARCH Ventures also participated in the raise. 

WHAT IT DOES

Elephas is developing a diagnostics platform to predict a patient's response to immunotherapy using metabolic imaging. 

Immunotherapy is a therapeutic approach that helps the immune system fight cancer. 

The Wisconsin-based company analyzes a tumor's architecture via a patient biopsy and treats it with potential therapies to determine treatment response. 

"The Elephas platform holds immense promise to address a critical unmet need in predicting response to immunotherapy," Venture Investors Health Fund's Paul Weiss said in a statement. "We are excited to work side by side with the company to pioneer a new diagnostic era for immunotherapy that will improve both access to therapy and outcomes for patients."

MARKET SNAPSHOT 

Immunotherapy is used to treat various types of cancers. Still, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery are the more widely used forms of treatment, according to the National Cancer Institute. 

Another company using emerging technologies to aid in the fight against cancer includes GE Healthcare, which announced a strategic partnership with Mayo Clinic in September, dubbed the Strategic Collaboration for Innovation in Medical Imaging and Theranostics. The collaboration focuses on advancing research and product development focusing on precision care, AI and theranostics.

Theranostics is an emerging technology and a form of precision medicine that fuses imaging technology with therapeutic agents to pinpoint and target cancer cells for destruction.

In November, GE Healthcare announced another collaboration, this time with Grand Rapids-based cancer treatment center BAMF Health, to advance the adoption of theranostics.