Doctors can more effectively treat many brain tumors by first ascertaining their genetic characteristics, rather than studying tissue samples under a microscope, which is the standard practice, two teams of researchers reported on June 10, 2015. CLICK HERE to read the entire New York Times article.
These studies provide a foundational rationale for ABC2's efforts in the profiling space. We have brought together a team of researchers from the Broad Institute, The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins, The Henry Ford Health Systems, Massachusetts General Hospital and The Mayo Clinic to develop a groundbreaking system that provides brain tumor patients and their physicians with rapid CLIA-compliant whole exome molecular tumor profiling.
These profiles, provided free of charge, both guide patient care and create a uniquely powerful knowledgebase that will enable better treatments in the future. This new system is already providing profiles that form the front end of a unique vaccine clinical trial at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and there are several more trials in the planning stages.
Main Image Credit: Dr. Daniel Brat of Emory University, lead author of one of the new studies, said genotyping would remove tumor variables. Photo by Donna Martin/Emory University.