Partners in Personalizing Care
Donation protected
Fighting cancer with all the tools in the arsenal
To say we're lucky is a little odd in the context of having developed a rare form of esophageal cancer. But, having the expertise to attack this cancer from both the nutritional and genomic science aspects is pretty lucky! The experimental part - utilizing the best of what's become known as "personalized" or "precision" medicine - is expensive though, so we've setup this site to help defray the costs of the tests needed to provide us with the information needed to pick the best possible medical care.
Pushing Personalized Medicine to the brink
Whole genome sequencing of tumor DNA is being used in many institutions now to guide selection of therapies for cancer treatment. We are combining the information from DNA sequencing with additional information from RNA sequencing and other genomic technologies to increase the likelihood of finding a targetted therapy, while at the same time trying other cutting-edge technologies (mouse xenografts, sequencing of liquid biopsies). We've listed the technologies we're using below, along with some information about each.
Looking to the future...
Regardless of how this works out for us, this process will be shared with the world so that others in a similar position will know what options are available to them. We will also share all the data produced through these tests. This is not information the general medical professional has yet, and many of the ideas of precision medicine are still in testing, so our hope is that this collection of tests and the story of how we tied all this information together, along with all of the data, will provide some guidance to future patients and researchers.
Precision Medicine tests to be used:
Whole genome DNA sequencing of tumor, high-depth
- next-generation whole genome sequencing of tumor DNA
- provides information on DNA sequence changes in tumor (after comparison to normal tissue sequence)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $20,000
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
Whole genome DNA sequencing of normal esophagus
- next-generation whole genome sequencing of normal esophageal DNA
- provides information on DNA sequence changes in tumor (after comparison to normal tissue sequence)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $5,000 (not as in-depth as tumor sequencing)
- should only need to do once
RNA sequencing of tumor, high-depth
- next-generation sequencing of tumor RNA
- provides information on expression of tumor genes (after comparison to expression in normal tissue)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $3,500
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
RNA sequencing of normal esophagus, high-depth
- next-generation sequencing of tumor RNA
- provides information on expression of tumor genes (after comparison to expression in normal tissue)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $3,500
- should only need to do once
Creation of mouse tumor xenograft
- collection of tumor tissue and engraftment into an immunocomprimised mouse strain
- allows for chemosensitivity testing of tumor
- time frame: 15 weeks
- cost: $7,000
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
Whole exome DNA sequencing of tumor xenograft
- next-generation exome sequencing of tumor tissue from mouse xenograft
- test to ensure that engrafting tumor in mouse hasn't changed the tumor
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $4,000
- should be done with each new mouse xenograft
Chemosensitivity testing of mouse xenograft
- testing potential chemotherapy regimens on mouse model growing my tumor
- allows us to determine best chemotherapeutic agent to use
- time frame: initial results at 3 weeks, ongoing results until 6 months
- cost: depends on number of agents tested - $5,000 - $20,000
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
To say we're lucky is a little odd in the context of having developed a rare form of esophageal cancer. But, having the expertise to attack this cancer from both the nutritional and genomic science aspects is pretty lucky! The experimental part - utilizing the best of what's become known as "personalized" or "precision" medicine - is expensive though, so we've setup this site to help defray the costs of the tests needed to provide us with the information needed to pick the best possible medical care.
Pushing Personalized Medicine to the brink
Whole genome sequencing of tumor DNA is being used in many institutions now to guide selection of therapies for cancer treatment. We are combining the information from DNA sequencing with additional information from RNA sequencing and other genomic technologies to increase the likelihood of finding a targetted therapy, while at the same time trying other cutting-edge technologies (mouse xenografts, sequencing of liquid biopsies). We've listed the technologies we're using below, along with some information about each.
Looking to the future...
Regardless of how this works out for us, this process will be shared with the world so that others in a similar position will know what options are available to them. We will also share all the data produced through these tests. This is not information the general medical professional has yet, and many of the ideas of precision medicine are still in testing, so our hope is that this collection of tests and the story of how we tied all this information together, along with all of the data, will provide some guidance to future patients and researchers.
Precision Medicine tests to be used:
Whole genome DNA sequencing of tumor, high-depth
- next-generation whole genome sequencing of tumor DNA
- provides information on DNA sequence changes in tumor (after comparison to normal tissue sequence)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $20,000
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
Whole genome DNA sequencing of normal esophagus
- next-generation whole genome sequencing of normal esophageal DNA
- provides information on DNA sequence changes in tumor (after comparison to normal tissue sequence)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $5,000 (not as in-depth as tumor sequencing)
- should only need to do once
RNA sequencing of tumor, high-depth
- next-generation sequencing of tumor RNA
- provides information on expression of tumor genes (after comparison to expression in normal tissue)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $3,500
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
RNA sequencing of normal esophagus, high-depth
- next-generation sequencing of tumor RNA
- provides information on expression of tumor genes (after comparison to expression in normal tissue)
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $3,500
- should only need to do once
Creation of mouse tumor xenograft
- collection of tumor tissue and engraftment into an immunocomprimised mouse strain
- allows for chemosensitivity testing of tumor
- time frame: 15 weeks
- cost: $7,000
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
Whole exome DNA sequencing of tumor xenograft
- next-generation exome sequencing of tumor tissue from mouse xenograft
- test to ensure that engrafting tumor in mouse hasn't changed the tumor
- time frame: 4 weeks
- cost: $4,000
- should be done with each new mouse xenograft
Chemosensitivity testing of mouse xenograft
- testing potential chemotherapy regimens on mouse model growing my tumor
- allows us to determine best chemotherapeutic agent to use
- time frame: initial results at 3 weeks, ongoing results until 6 months
- cost: depends on number of agents tested - $5,000 - $20,000
- will need to be done with original tumor and all tumor recurrences
Organiser
M Michael Barmada
Organiser
Pittsburgh, PA
