What testing can and cannot do
- It can show a target that makes a particular drug worth discussing
- It can show that immunotherapy is more or less likely to be relevant
- It can find an inherited risk in selected families, which is a different test from a tumour test
- It cannot diagnose cancer by itself if a biopsy has not been done
- It cannot guarantee that a matched drug will shrink the cancer
How a result is used in clinic
The report is read with the scans, the pathology, and prior treatment. A variant of unknown significance is not the same as a proven target. Liquid biopsy, which looks for tumour DNA in blood, can help in selected situations and can also miss a change that is present in the tumour. The choice of test should be explained before it is ordered.
Questions about this topic
Is precision oncology the same as alternative medicine?
No. It is a conventional medical approach based on pathology and molecular tests. It still sits inside standard cancer care and still has limits.