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Hi Judie--I had this done in April at this facility/lab. I had a gland removed and pathology fed exed them a tissue sample. I got the kit from the lab--which they can either fed ex to you or your facility/hospital. I don't live that far from them so I picked up the kit the day before surgery.
They test the tissue sample for different combinations of chemotherapy drugs--standard one There is another (or other) labs that test for single drug effectiveness, but this one is uniquite in that it tests for drug combinations.
The cost is $2500.00. If the sample doesn't have enough tumor cells, which they will know in 3 days, they refund all but $250.00 (processing/testing fee). I my case the sample tested positive for 7 different chemo combinations. Those are listed in order of effectiveness.
The problem--though--was that the pathology came back negative or benign. So, who's right? I wound up getting a full refund because of the discrepancy but I am not sure who to trust. Somehow, I think I trust the chemo testing lab more than my health care facility who, according to an article I recently read by a physician who used to work there, has manipulated test results.
My health care facility did not want to do the surgery and orchestrated a very manipulativedelay and orchestration of avoidance. However, the head of the dept finally went ahead and did it. I did like him as a surgeon. He removed the entire submandibular gland--which had shown increased uptake in that area of a few PET scans over the previous 2+ yrs. The dr. showed my husband, a dentist the gland, and it did look like the entire gland had been removed plus more. We saw the dr's surgical report--said he removed the whole gland. We also saw the pathology report--which stated that what was received was a "SEGMENT" of the gland. Huh???? What happened to the whole gland. The surgeon gave me a copy of his surgical report and this path. rept. at time of my post op appt. I immediately noted the discrepancy and asked him about it. His response--acted very annoyed and uncomfortable and said, with difficulty--he "didn't know."
So--that's my experience with the chemotherapy analysis...
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