NORTHBROOK, Ill., Oct. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Astellas today announced the five C³ Prize finalists chosen from more than 160 entries to present their ideas to change cancer care in a live forum at the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) World Cancer Leaders' Summit (WCLS) on November 13^th in Mexico City. The Astellas Oncology C³ Prize is a global challenge designed to acknowledge and support non-medicine innovations to improve the cancer care experience for patients, caregivers and their loved ones. Following the live pitches, Astellas will award one Grand Prize Winner a $50,000 grant and a personal business consultation with Robert Herjavec, technology entrepreneur, star of ABC's Emmy Award-winning hit television show Shark Tank and former cancer caregiver.

"The quality of the Astellas Oncology C³ Prize submissions is a testament to Astellas' philosophy of tapping into the collective genius of people around the world to generate innovation," said Herjavec. "Each of the finalist ideas has the potential to bring non-treatment based innovation in cancer care to reality, and I'm looking forward to meeting with this year's Grand Prize Winner."

Applicants to this year's challenge included patients, caregivers, healthcare providers and technology entrepreneurs from more than 20 countries who submitted ideas in four areas where patients living with cancer and the overall cancer community face some of the toughest obstacles: navigating the health care system, adhering to complex medical care requirements, coordinating care and surviving life post-treatment. The five finalists are:

• Kevin Bambury of Killarney, Ireland, ONCOassist, which has developed an interactive informational app designed to contain all of the tools oncology professionals need at point of care to help diagnose and manage treatment.
• Howard Isenstein of Bethesda, Maryland, Care Progress, whose app CarePrompter aims to improve patient navigation, adherence and care coordination by prompting patients to check in with their clinicians frequently on a wide range of topics.
• Cory Kidd of San Francisco, California, Catalia Health, which has developed the Mabu Wellness Coach Platform featuring an AI-powered companion robot that incorporates psychology, evidenced-based healthcare solutions, and artificial intelligence to help patients better manage their care.
• Hernâni Oliveira of Porto, Portugal, HOPE PROJECT, which consists of a two-part app developed to help both pediatric cancer patients and their parents solve issues related to medication adherence and the sedentary lifestyle of children that are diagnosed with cancer, and help parents further understand and explain complex cancer treatment procedures.
• Charlotte Vander Stichele of Antwerp, Belgium, Mindbytes, whose Cancer Patient Decision Aid (CADA) would provide patients with an interactive scenario-based decision-support tool complete with information on disease burden, treatment impacts and the various decision-points during care.

The finalists will present their ideas at the WCLS to a panel of judges including Ambassador Sally Cowal, senior vice president, Global Cancer Control at the American Cancer Society, Nick Grant, executive director, International Partnerships at Cancer Research UK, Chihiro Hosoya, senior manager, New Business Incubator at Astellas, and Mark Reisenauer, senior vice president, Oncology Business Unit at Astellas.

"We are again thrilled with the number and quality of submissions received for this year's C³ Prize," said Reisenauer, whose own personal experience caring for his late father influenced the development and launch of the C³ Prize.

In addition to the Grand Prize Winner, the other four finalists will each receive $12,500 from Astellas and all five finalists will receive a one-year nights and weekends' membership to MATTER, a healthcare innovation community, to help bring their ideas to life.

For more information, visit www.C3Prize.com.

About Astellas
Astellas is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. For more information on Astellas, please visit our website at www.astellas.us. You can also follow us on Twitter at @AstellasUS, Facebook at www.facebook.com/AstellasUS or LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/astellas-pharma.

About UICC
The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) is dedicated to taking the lead in convening, capacity building and advocacy initiatives that unite the cancer community to reduce the global cancer burden, promote greater equity, and integrate cancer control into the world health and development agenda.

Founded in 1933 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, UICC is the largest and oldest international cancer organisation. With over 1,000 members and 56 partners across 162 countries, UICC features the world's major cancer societies, ministries of health, research institutes, patient groups, and industry leaders.

For more information, visit www.uicc.org.

About MATTER
MATTER is a community of entrepreneurs, innovators and industry leaders working together to harness technology to improve health and healthcare. MATTER connects and promotes collaboration between entrepreneurs, scientists, physicians, investors and industry leaders in order to bring next-generation products and services to market that improve quality of care and save lives. For more information, visit www.matterchicago.com.

SOURCE Astellas Pharma Inc.