Foundation Medicine Inc.
Bringing genome analysis to routine cancer care
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
The wealth of knowledge about genomic alterations that drive cancer has produced a variety of targeted therapies, but when presented with a newly diagnosed patient, oncologists are faced with a wide array of molecular tests to determine which drug might be the best. Foundation Medicine Inc. has developed a fully informative genomic profile that sequences DNA extracted from tumor tissue, identifying variations in over 200 genes that are known to be altered in human solid tumor cancers. The test produces a report that highlights “actionable” genomic alterations and links them to approved drugs known to be effective against the cancer’s genetic profile, or to appropriate clinical trials of targeted therapies in development.