It is helpful to know what precision oncology options are available to you from the start so that you can make informed decisions about how to allocate your tumor tissue. It is important to note the following circumstances that may not be suitable for in vivo pharmacology testing, since tumor tissue may not engraft well: 1) Early-stage cancers and 2) Tumor tissue that has been irradiated within 10 weeks of biopsy or resection surgery.  You might ask your oncologist to perform a biopsy or resection surgery prior to undergoing radiation treatment.

Once your oncologist determines your cancer is regional, distant, or has metastatic potential, it may be a good time to consider in vivo testing. All too often, patients come to us very late in their disease when they have treatment fatigue and are out of standard-of-care options. Imagine if every individual diagnosed with cancer knew in advance the options available to them for second- or third-line treatment.