Outer Space & Inner Space: A Potentially Game-Changing New Cancer Test Has Just Arrived

When NASA's New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first high-resolution outer space views of Pluto in 2015, they were the most remarkably vivid close-ups of the "dwarf planet" that humans had ever seen. NASA scientists and then the rest of the world were stunned by the breathtaking, high-resolution photos.

Meanwhile, in inner space (the human body), cancer scientists, too, are seeing things they have never seen before and working in an equally vast and mysterious universe that they are just beginning to comprehend. 

On that note, I participated in an enlightening interview this week with Dr. Rick Baehner, Chief Medical Officer, Precision Oncology at Exact Sciences. It's a dynamic cancer screening and diagnostic testing (liquid biopsy) company that I've been following for several years. 

He put it all in the proper perspective with an insightful and appropriately cosmic take. 

"Working with liquid biopsy technology is like looking at the horizon and seeing Pluto and its moon imagery," said Baehner, who was eager to talk about the company's breakthrough test and what it means for people with cancer. 

This week, the company turned its relevance in the cancer arena up yet another notch. My conversation with Baehner was a bit like speaking with astronomer/scientist/author Carl Sagan and physician/biologist/author Siddhartha Mukherjee at the same time. 

The conversation made me consider both outer space and the human body, which can feel just as ominously vast and unfamiliar.

But thanks to companies like Exact Sciences and scientists like Baehner, that is changing. And people with cancer are the beneficiaries of this change.

Cancer cells in the body

Exact Sciences has just launched a personalized cancer test that provides doctors with vitally important information needed to make important decisions about therapy based on the specific patient's cancer. 

"As diagnostic medicine continues to move forward," said Baehner, "the importance of having genetic information about a specific tumor becomes even more essential and will ultimately benefit the person who is taking the test."

The OncoExTra therapy selection test was announced this week in the United States. 

OncoExTra is a next-generation sequencing (NGS), comprehensive DNA and RNA based genomic test that provides physicians and their patients with a complete molecular picture of the patient's cancer. 

The test provides reliable and actionable results personalized to each patient. Remember that word: Personalization. It is the future of cancer medicine, and ideally all medicine. 

"The OncoExTra test substantially enhances our ability to characterize and understand solid cancer tumors, giving out patients the best chance at treating their cancer successfully," said Stephen Gruber, MD, PhD, MPH, vice president  of the City of Hope National Medical Center and Director, Center for Precision Medicine at City of Hope in a press statement this week.

"With this test, I have a much better picture of my patient's cancer, allowing me to prescribe the most effective treatment for their specific tumor," Gruber said. 

Personalized Cancer Treatment

As you read this, the majority of eligible cancer patients do not receive comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) to help understand their disease and guide treatment. 

Personalized medicine, powered by CGP, helps oncologists understand the unique biology of each patient's tumor and prescribe treatments  that offer the best outcomes. 

In a press statement this week, Kevin Conroy, chairman and CEO of Exact Sciences, said the company continues to build its leadership in cancer diagnostics by offering innovative tests addressing clinical needs at every step of a patient's cancer care.

"We are glad to add OncoExTra to our growing portfolio of cancer solutions across the cancer-care-care continuum, and deliver new levels of tumor-specific information and insights to doctors and patients that guide vital treatment decisions to achieve the best outcomes," Conroy said.

The OncoExTra test uses NGS to assess the tumor's RNA and DNA, providing actionable information to inform treatment decisions and uncover variants possibly missed by only evaluating DNA.

NGS is a method used to determine a portion of the nucleotide sequence of an individual's genome. 

 This technique utilizes DNA sequencing technologies that are capable of processing multiple DNA sequences in parallel. 

The test works by profiling the entire exome and the transcriptome across 20,000 genes. 

The “exome” consists of all the genome's exons, which are the coding portions of genes. The "transcriptome" is simply the sum total of all the messenger RNA molecules expressed from the genes of an organism.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has updated its guidelines to recommend FNA-based fusion testing for patients with no actionable information provided by a standard  DNA, multigene panel test.

Medicare covers the OncoExTra test. And doctors can order the test for all advanced solid tumors.

Bottom line

Cancer scientists are now discovering remarkable, game-changing things related to cancer in the human body that they have never seen or identified before simply because they did not have the tools to look. 

This is truly the golden age of cancer screening and treatment. Only 2o years ago, we knew very little about how cancer really works in the body. 

But scientists have learned more about cancer in the last ten years than they did in the previous century.  

For more information, visit precisiononcology.exactsciencves.com