Companion diagnostics based on panels of genomic markers represent an important part of standard-of-care precision treatment strategies, however the benefits are limited to particular tumor types. For many cancer patients, there is still an unmet need of personalized diagnostics informing the clinicians on treatment options. Comprehensive molecular tumor analysis (CMTA) might help overcoming the obstacles."

Stuart was referred to Alacris by Dr Matt Williams, the raw data from Cegat was sent to Alacris. The results were then sent straight to Dr Williams and then onto Dr Castro. The CMTA is a certified diagnostic test which can only be ordered through a healthcare professional. You can read more about it here.

This is the service that we used:

"Our Comprehensive Molecular Tumour Analysis (CMTA) is a certified cancer diagnostic test, which generates a detailed molecular profile of your tumour. The key findings are summarised in a concise report delivered to your oncologist. Designed for clinical tumour boards, the CMTA report contains essential molecular information about your tumour with an interpretation of clinically-relevant biomarkers which may guide the treatment strategy. It is important to note, however, that not all molecular alterations identified by the CTMA will find a match with a targeted drug – a drug that interferes with specific molecules involved in cancer – as the number of available drugs approved for clinical use is still limited."

What is Alacris?

In their own words:

"OVERCOMING PRESENT DRAWBACKS IN CANCER THERAPY"

"The benefits of comprehensive molecular tumour profiling for treatment recommendations. Every patient is unique. Every tumour is unique and deploys its own set of complex molecular alterations occurring at the genome, transcriptome, and proteome levels. This individuality represents a challenge for cancer treatment, in particular for metastatic tumours, cancers of unknown primary (CUPs) and rare cancer types.

You can only work with Alacris through your Oncologist, we had minimal contact with them, only signing consent forms for Cegat to release Stuart's raw data and to pay the bill which was approx 2500 euro. We had already had sequencing done via Cegat however the more information we could get to give Dr Castro the more comprehensive and accurate Dr Castro's results would be. 

From order to report delivery was approximately two weeks, this was not the full service though because the Alacris report was generated from the raw data supplied by Cegat. The full sequencing from tumour/sample receipt to report delivery is four weeks.  The pricing for the other diagnostics is different and because we didn't do that I don't know what they are. More information here.

HINDSIGHT
As with most of our steps we should have done this right at the beginning. The report is so detailed that it gives you and your clinicians so much personalised data and hopefully one day it will be completely standard to have this detail for all cancer patients treated within the NHS standard of care system. 

Contact details:
Website
Email
Brochure

Pubmed article on cancer precision medicine

"The concept of ‘precision medicine’ is becoming increasingly relevant for cancer treatment, moving from the ‘one-size-fits-all’ standard therapy to a more personalized scheme guided by molecular diagnostics"

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