Foundation One has announced that The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a “breakthrough device” that has the potential to match cancer patients with more accurate individualized treatment regiments with just one test. This test will push the boundaries of personalized medicine as it might allow us to choose better treatments that are most likely to be effective for specific types of cancer — and to make those decisions sooner.

The test, called FoundationOne CDx, should allow some people diagnosed with cancer to decide which drugs or therapies are best suited to treat their specific cancer. It evaluates the presence of 324 specific genetic mutations with an accuracy of about 94.6 percent.

Currently, existing tests in this space evaluate just one potential drug; this new test can screen for fifteen different treatment options.

Additionally, the test is also able to determine if the subject tumor has either of two “genomic signatures;” molecular changes that can occur in cancer cells and can influence how that cancer is classified.

Ask your doctor to learn about this test and then to discuss with you if this test might help you make your future treatment choices.

Joel T. Nowak, MA, MSW wrote this Post. Joel is the CEO/Executive Director of Cancer ABCs. He is a Cancer Thriver diagnosed with five primary cancers - Thyroid, Metastatic Prostate, Renal, Melanoma, and the rare cancer Appendiceal cancer.