Frequently Asked Questions About the Center for Personalized Diagnostics

The CPD aims to uncover genetic mutations within a patient's own cancer that can allow for a more targeted and personalized "precision" treatment strategy.  The CPD is a joint program and collaboration between Penn’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center. That means our pathologists work hand-in-hand with your oncologist to determine the best course of action for your cancer treatment, based on the genomic test results and your specific needs.

Personalized medicine aims to individualize treatments to match each patient with the therapy they are most likely to respond to by assessing the patients’ unique genomic alterations or background. This allows your medical team to more precisely deliver the right treatment, to the right person, at the right time.

Cancer is just normal cells that have acquired genetic mutations that make those cells become “cancer” cells.

The most important result of Precision Medicine is that it can help to identify targeted therapies that may be more effective and have less side effects, based on the patient’s individualized cancer mutations. Knowing genomic cancer alterations may also spare some individuals the costs and side effects of targeted therapies.  Knowing your genomic alterations may also provide a rationale for matching your results with molecularly targeted therapies in clinical trials. Your oncologist will discuss these options if they apply.

The CPD can help find those exact genomic alterations that turned your healthy cells into cancer cells and can be targeted to help eliminate them.

In clinical cases, disease-associated mutations have been reported in 75 percent of patient tests which may reveal results with therapeutic significance. Though the mutations can be useful for betting understanding your cancer, the mutations often do not have a treatment to match the particular mutation. The clinical relevance of the findings associated with CPD testing will be discussed by your oncologist.

Only your oncologist can order a CPD test. To have your cancer tested by the CPD usually does not require another procedure. Your oncologist will request your sample to be sent directly to the lab for analysis.

Your oncologist will share your results with you and review what the next steps are for your treatment. Depending on what tests are ordered, results are usually received within 7 to 14 days.

The CPD is committed to providing patients, clinicians and healthcare professionals with high quality and affordable oncology testing. The CPD accepts all private insurances and Medicare.

You should first ask your oncologist for specific questions you have regarding testing at CPD.