Long (overdue) update...

[Lani]

An advocate friend of mine commented on Kim's post: " the problem with the Precipio test is that they only look for the documented genetic and molecular targets associated with a particular cancer ("clinically relevant mutations"). Tumor profiling's real strength is in looking for and finding unexpected targets that can be treated. For example,finding that a patient with heavily pretreated metastatic serous ovarian carcinoma who has been told that she was out of treatment options was 3+ HER2+ and HER2 FISH-overexpressed upon tumor profiling . A herceptin-based protocol seems to have stabilized this particularly patient -- an option that she would never have received in the absence of a tumor profile.

Caris Diagnostics is one of the labs that uses a combination of IHC/DNA microarray analysis and gives a choice of either testing only for documented targets or of getting a comprehensive test looking at most druggable targets. A new kid on block just opened their doors this summer. They are called Foundation Medicine and will test the cancer for 182 gene mutations, overexpressions, underexpressions, etc"



So Cal Gal -- I know nothing about any of these three options, but perhaps your oncologist could look into the possibilities. There should still be lots and lots of options available before the "fat lady sings"

PS Next time don't be a stranger to these boards. Perhaps thinking through your options with others who may or may not have been there before could have enabled you to exercise more caution/ entered into the trial with a more realistic risk/benefit analysis.

As with most things even good treatments can cause bad results depending on their timing, dosage, whether or not your body metabolizes them the way others do etc. One should never be faulted for hope.

Perhaps you should post what the treatment was, so others can benefit.

Best of luck. Hope some of this helped.