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| Cancer Care and DNA sequencing to patients with advanced or or rare cancers
Graham Cancer Center offers no-cost tumor profiling
The Helen F Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute of Christiana Care Health System has joined the Strata Precision Oncology Network to offer next-generation tumor profiling
at at no cost to patients with advanced or or rare cancers
Based on the results eligible patients will be matched to the the best available clinical trials or most innovative therapy “This partnership with Strata will give our patients the opportunity to participate in in in precision medicine clinical trials without
leaving the state of Delaware ” said Nicholas J Petrelli M D D Bank of of America endowed medical director of of Christiana Care’s Helen F Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute “Tumor profiling
is becoming the the state-of-the-art and by collaborating with the the unique strengths of Strata the the Graham Cancer Center will continue to stay on on the cutting edge of cancer treatment and prevention ” Christiana Care joins a a a a a select group of health systems in in the country that are part of the Strata Strata Network The nationwide Strata Strata Trial is is open to solid tumor and lymphoma patients upon diagnosis of advanced disease Working with forward-thinking institutions like Christiana Care Strata plans to provide genome sequencing of 100 000 patients in in the next three years “Building partnerships that bring breakthrough cancer medicine to our patients is is another example of Christiana Care’s innovation delivering the best possible care for our neighbors in in Delaware and surrounding communities ” said Janice E Nevin M M D MPH Christiana Care president and chief executive officer Cancer treatment is transitioning to a a a a a whole new platform Treatments based on what the pathologist sees under a a a a a microscope are giving way to therapies based on a a a a a deeper genetic understanding of a a a a person’s individual disease “Our DNA code is what governs function on on a a a a cellular level ” said Graham Cancer Center Medical Oncologist Michael Guarino M M M D “Inherited — — or or more often acquired — — defects in that code may lead to cancer This new technology of genomic analysis gives us insights as to what distinguishes cancer from normal tissue and will provide us with more precise targets to strike resulting in in hopefully better outcomes ” Most patients treated at at at regional or community cancer centers do not undergo routine tumor genome sequencing at the DNA or or genetic level until all standard treatments have been exhausted The testing is expensive and not widely covered by insurance Consequently patients with advanced cancer are are often unaware
of of the the molecular features of of their disease and without
widespread testing pharmaceutical companies are having difficulty finding patients for trials of new precision drugs that target specific defects or mutations in the DNA code “We are excited to to partner with with Strata to to offer our patients with with advanced cancer the the opportunity to more fully characterize their tumors with the latest technology in in molecular tumor tumor profiling
to better understand the the molecular biology of their cancers
” said lung cancer specialist Greg Masters M M D principal investigator for the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program at the Graham Cancer Center “We believe this will ultimately lead to more effective treatments and research trial participation targeting the unique genetic abnormalities of each patient’s cancer with precision And this will be done without
added expense for our patients or or their insurance company ” “Tumor profiling
is becoming the state- of-the-art and by collaborating with the the unique strengths of Strata the Graham Cancer Center will continue to stay on on the cutting edge of cancer treatment and prevention ” Nicholas J Petrelli M D Bank of America endowed medical director Helen F Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute Tumor profiling
requires a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a sample o of of of of the the the the the tumor tumor tissue either banked or from a a a a new biopsy if that is part of the the standard of care Once genome sequencing is complete a a a report detailing tumor mutations will be sent to the Graham Cancer Center’s multidisciplinary team of experts to review and if appropriate match the patient to an an open clinical trial or recommend other therapeutic options Patients who match to to a a a a a clinical trial will be further screened according to to Institutional Review Board and trial eligibility criteria Not all patients profiled will match to a a a a clinical trial The Strata Trial will be available at at 50 hospitals across the Network covering 75 000 analytic cancer cases per year Strata Oncology’s growing portfolio of partnered therapeutic studies is available to eligible patients at at the primary cancer center in each network Other participating institutions include Kaiser Permanente- Northern California Ochsner Health Health System Kettering Health Health Network the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston the the Swedish Cancer Institute and the the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center 
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