BEYOND GENOMICS: FUNCTIONAL PRECISION ONCOLOGY

Treating a patient with resistant, recurrant or other recalcitrant cancer can feel like an exercise in trial and error. When you have exhausted all standard-of-care options—or when you know there’s a high likelihood that even the best available therapy will eventually fail—functional testing can help answer the question, “What’s next?”

YourPDX Functional Precision Oncology^® is an in vivo assay that uses personalized orthotopic patient-derived xenograft (O-PDX) models of an individual’s cancer as a functional testing platform. These advanced mouse models enable the simultaneous testing of multiple combination therapies and off-label therapeutic options to evaluate drug response and help inform clinical strategies.

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More Personalized Precision Cancer Medicine

Functional testing can help address the limitations of mainstream clinical practice by providing immediately translatable, personalized information to guide individualized therapy.¹

Precision Oncology in Action: Functional Testing at Certis

Unlike genetic profiling alone, functional assays capture biological complexities of human cancer in a living system.¹ At Certis^®, we utilize orthotopic PDX models—the gold standard mouse model for cancer research and preclinical drug development²—as our platform for personalized functional testing . Orthotopic PDX mouse models are developed by surgically engrafting a small fragment of human donor tumor tissue in situ in immunocompromised mice. The resulting personalized mouse avatars closely replicate the unique genetic and molecular signature of a patient’s tumor³, making them clinically relevant tools for evaluating drug response and resistance.⁴ They also closely replicate a patient’s tumor microenvironment, which plays a critical role in cancer progression and metastatic behavior.⁵⁶ Functional assays like YourPDX^® can help inform clinical strategies for a wide range cancers. To learn more, read our whitepaper on filling the gaps left by genomics-based approaches or access supporting peer-reviewed literature in our library.

FUNCTIONAL ONCOLOGY WHITEPAPER

Representative Image Results from Functional Testing

Certis uses a mouse MRI and quantitative three-dimensional tumor volume calculations to record changes in tumor size in each of the mice at multiple timepoints. The treating oncologist receives a final report, detailing a visual account of the study and results, which includes before-and-after MRI images of tumors from mice in each arm — as well as images of histology stains, which illustrate the cellular structure of tissues and provide additional confirmation of tumor response in each mouse avatar.

There’s a whole host of new drugs out there. They intermittently work for some patients, but not others. The only way to really know if a therapy will work is to test it in the patient. But for many, there isn’t time… and these are often very toxic drugs. Certis offers us an alternative: simultaneously testing multiple therapeutic options—not in the patient, but in living models of their cancer. When deciding how to treat this disease, it’s an advanced approach to precision oncology.”

Frederick (Fritz) C. Eilber, MD
Founding Certis Board Member, Physician Scientist & Surgical Oncologist

Breaking It Down: Personalized O-PDX Testing Helps Determine Treatment Options for Each Patient’s Cancer

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YourPDX Testing: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

What is the YourPDX test?

Why does Certis use orthotopic models for YourPDX functional testing?

Where can I get more information about the use of PDX models in cancer research?

How does genetic testing compare to YourPDX testing?

What are patient eligibility requirements for the YourPDX test?

Is genetic testing required for YourPDX testing?

Can YourPDX testing be used for recurrent or refractory tumors?

Can YourPDX testing be used for metastatic cancers?

Can YourPDX testing be used for previously radiated tumors?

Do you have any patient education resources for YourPDX functional oncology testing?

When should I start discussing YourPDX functional oncology testing as an option with my cancer patient?

When is the best time to proceed with YourPDX Functional Testing?

Can you cryopreserve patient tissue if the patient elects not to have YourPDX testing done right away?

Post-biopsy/resection surgery, how will the patient’s tumor tissue specimen be transported to Certis?

How are YourPDX functional oncology testing agents selected?

Why is it important to select therapies for YourPDX testing early?

How long will it take to get YourPDX functional oncology testing results?

What does the final report include?

How will test results benefit my patient?

YOURPDX IS A FUNCTIONAL DRUG SENSITIVITY TEST THAT MEASURES THERAPEUTIC RESPONSE IN ORTHOTOPIC PATIENT-DERIVED XENOGRAFT MODELS. TEST RESULTS ARE NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR MEDICAL ADVICE. TREATMENT DECISIONS ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PATIENTS AND THEIR PHYSICIANS. YOURPDX TESTING REQUIRES FRESH TUMOR TISSUE. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO CONTACT US PRIOR TO BIOPSY OR RESECTION SURGERY