DNA sequencing service of a "growth"/tumor

[Andreas "Mega" Stuermer]

Hi! Someone I know was diagnosed with growths in the intestine and the doctors immediately made an appointment to cut it out. Probably cancer. 

It seems they won't do DNA sequencing of the supposed "tumors"   but just do it 1990s-style - just cut it out an hope it hasn't metastasized. If it has (wait to find out), probably chemo or something. 

Now it's 2019, I proposed to the patient  shipping the "tumor" to a company that can read its DNA, in parallel with reading mouth buccal cells or blood cells. So it should be possible to find which gene is responsible (f it's EGFR or another common suspect). 

I definitely think it's a waste that they would just throw away the tumor, because that get rid of any helpful information. AFAIK, certain drugs are well-known to work better with EGFR mutations and others are known to work better with Rb mutations. Or even immnotherpies, there might be clinical trials going on on that exact type of cancer. 

Does anyone know a company that routinely does this, or would be able to? Obviously it would be best if there were a standard company that we could propose to the doctors, but worst case, we just ask the doctors to give us a sample of the tissue and we ship it to the company. 

[Gordana Ostojic]

https://www.tempus.com/ 

I don't know if they are any good though.

Best of luck.

[Ravasz]

Hi,

I think the problem is not really with the sequencing as any well-equipped hospital should in theory have the resources for this kind of genetic testing (instead of sequencing a few simple PCRs would probably be sufficient). The main problem is that doctors are not prepared to use personalized therapies. So even if you give them the genetic information, the doctor will not be able to use it because they will probably not know what to do with it, and they have to follow predetermined decision trees which do not incorporate this level of genetic information.

If you would want to do this then you have to first prove for a specific cancer type that the presence of some genetic marker allows better survival with therapy X, and then have this incorporated into the therapy choices of oncologists in your area.

I sincerely hope this story will have a happy end, all the best to him/her.

Mate

[Dakota Hamill]

This company has spoken about the targeted cancer therapy you've mentioned years ago when I saw them give a talk. I think it's whole genome for $999

 https://www.veritasgenetics.com/

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[Andreas "Mega" Stuermer]

Thanks so much for your relies, will check out the links. Highly appreciated!!