Providing Physicians and Patients with Individualized Tumor Analysis
There is a tremendous need for new ways to manage and treat cancer, an extremely complex disease family that accounts for almost one out of every four deaths in the United States.1 An individual cancer contains many different alterations based on the unique biology of that patient’s disease. As a result, certain patients may be more likely than others to develop advanced disease or to respond to certain therapies. Until recently, we have only had limited insight into these differences at a patient’s initial diagnosis, which limited clinicians’ ability to choose a treatment tailored to the individual.
This is where genomics—the study of complex sets of genes and how they work in our bodies’ cells to influence tumor biology and behavior (among other functions)—comes in. At Genomic Health, new genomic testing services are being developed to provide clinically validated, individualized tumor profiles in order to improve the quality of treatment decisions for patients with cancer, ultimately with the goal of impacting patient outcomes.
- American Cancer Society, Inc.’s Cancer Statistics 2008. Accessed August 12, 2008.