Need some help here!

[Sandy H]

Can anyone tell me the name of the test that they do on the tissue to see what chemo will respond to our cancer? I think I am going to ask my oncologist about it tomorrow and I wouild have a nme to give him. hugs, Sandy

[Esther]

Sandy are you thinking of Oncotpe DX, from Genomic Health? You can go to www.genomichealth.com (http://www.genomichealth.com) and check it out to see if that's what you were thinkin of.

[janet11]

Are you thinking of the TOPO II test? (I don't think it's "proven" however.. .just 'indicated')

[chrisy]

Sandy, I think I know what you're talking about. Are you talking about chemo sensitivity and resistance tests? Where they take your tissue and test it with a bunch of different agents to find which one works?

I read it in a Wall Street Journal article in Sept 2004 - ASCO had just failed to approve these tests, although the people in the article disagreed. I probably have it clipped in a pile somewhere but doubt I can find it! Also, it was 2 years ago, there may be newer news.

The first link has the text of that article (although not the names of the companies that do testing!). The second link is one of the companies mentioned in the article. The third link is a "rebuttal" article, stating why the ASCO decision may have been wrong.

Hope this helps.

http://annieappleseedproject.stores.yahoo.net/pansaytesnot.html
http://www.rationaltherapeutics.com/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=13910

[Barbara2]

I'll share what I have in my "notes" regarding tests. This may not be what you are thinking of, but maybe...

PTEN: PTEN positive is a good thing as herceptin activates PTEN so it can stop proliferation of the Her2+ cancer cell. You can test the tumor to see if you have PTEN in the tumor.

TOPO II: predicts whether anythracyclines will help.

Oncotype DX: A test on the tumor of node negative, hormone positive cancers. It is a 21 gene analysis; gives a recurrance score of 0-100. Costs $3000. The specific goal of this test was to identify a set of reproducible prognostic factors for patients with node-negative, ER-positive breast cancer who had been treated with tamoxifen for 5 years. This reletively novel technology allows clinicians to assess risk and potential benefit from thereapy and helps avoid undertreatment or overtreatment.

Sept. 06
EGFRx(TM)
Clinical study results published at the annual meeting of the ASCO, show that a new lab test has accurately identified patients who would benefit from treatment with the molecularly-targeted anti-cancer therapies gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva).

The test can discriminate between the activity of different targeted drugs and identify situations in which it is advantageous to combine the targeted drugs with other types of cancer drugs.

[Sandy H]

Thank you all for your help. I did find what I was looking for. Thank you Chrisy those articles answered my questions. hugs, Sandy