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The Advantage of Using Several Testing Methods

There are several laboratory methods for testing cell death. Most labs use only one method. Our lab has the capability to perform five different cell death testing methods. For each patient, we apply two to three of these methods. Why so many? Each technology measures different processes occurring within the cell. Depending upon the condition of the specimen we receive and the anti-cancer drugs we are testing against your tumor cells, some tests are better suited than others. Do you recall when we said that cancer was not a one-size-fits-all disease? We believe that this principle also applies to testing and so we individualize your Functional Tumor Cell Profiling analysis by applying the testing technologies that are the best for you in your specific situation. Applying separate assay technologies that measure different cell processes provides several benefits: it increases the amount of information we can obtain even from suboptimal specimens, it provides for excellent quality control, and it ensures that each anti-cancer drug under consideration is assessed in the assay system that is most appropriate for that drug.

Something else we do that many other labs don’t is to test each anti-cancer drug at two different concentrations. This is NOT intended to suggest how much of the drug you should eventually receive. Rather, we do this to ensure test accuracy and to better assess each drug’s effectiveness at killing your cancer cells. What this all boils down to is that we test each of the 20 or more anti-cancer drugs for you in three different assay systems and at two different drug concentrations. Add to this the positive and negative assay controls which we test and it means we actually are performing over 120 separate Cell Profiling Tests for you. Compare this to some labs that test 7 to 10 drugs in one assay system at one drug concentration. Our way is a lot more work but we think it pays dividends for you in the form of more useful and more reliable information to help in designing your treatments.