Seeking a recommendation for a company/service that does genetic testing on prostate cancer tumor cells.

[GregHouston]

Hello, I'm looking for a recommendation for a service that does genetic prostate cancer tumor cell testing. Has anyone had any experience with a company that does this service? What is involved with the process? Has anyone used the service called SaveMyTumor.com or others like this? Thanks for your feedback.

[Tall_Allen]

It depends what kind of genetic test you are looking for, and for what purpose. The easiest test (on saliva or blood) is a germline test (like Color Genome Dx). The somatic tests depend on the decision you are trying to make. If you are on AS for low risk PC, there's Decipher or Prolaris. If you've had a prostatectomy and deciding on SRT, then Decipher. If you are looking for any of the few actionable somatic mutations, then something like Foundation One (tumor or blood), Caris (tumor), or Guardant 360 (blood) may be your best bet. If there is no treatment decision to be made, forget about genomic testing.

[GregHouston in reply to Tall_Allen]

I had the Invitae cancer profile and genetic mutations test done and they both came back negative for mutations. I thought I had read that somatic genetic testing would be helpful in matching medications and treatment options as they become available or in clinical trial enrollment. Your info is very helpful. Thank you.

[Tall_Allen in reply to GregHouston]

Someday, maybe. There are so far only a couple of actionable mutations for PC. Because genomic breakdown accelerates over time, and because there are many clinical trials for other mutations, your odds of finding something actionable improves over time.

[noirhole]

I had Foundation one do a tumor biopsy. Insurance paid for biopsy but now is refusing to pay the Foundation one bill. I will be asking for a review but it is extremely expensive if your insurance steps away.

[GregHouston in reply to noirhole]

Yes, I just found out that my United Healthcare insurance will not cover a FoundationOne test. Foundation says they have financial assistance if insurance won't cover it so I might give that a whirl before I commit to a test. Did you gain any treatment insight from having this done?

[noirhole in reply to GregHouston]

After guided needle biopsy in hospital I had no genetic insights. Which was a difficult thing to swallow since I am at the end of SOC options I have even completed LU-177. So now I will be looking for more clinical trials.

[Hotrod65]

As a 7 yr patient Advocate for Foundation Medicine I highly recommend them for the vast array of Mutational varients they test for with both their CDx panels liquid......bloodstream floating DNA or solid tumor Genomic Sequencing ,results can match you to a clinical trial or treatment with precision targeted therapies..as Nal indicates Medicare covers their expensive testing, also work with your Oncologist, my testing 6 yrs ago thru my Guy resulted in never seeing a Bill, ...also I'm well connected in Foundation and can have any number of folks to put you in touch with...John.

[GregHouston in reply to Hotrod65]

Thanks, John. I already know my insurance will not cover this test, so I'll call Foundation Medicine about the financial assistance they offer. Glad to hear this worked so well for you.

[EdBar]

I’ve used Invitae which used a blood sample back when I had it but now it can also be done with saliva. And I used Caris to test tumor samples from my original biopsy. They were made available at no cost to me through Dr. Sartor at Tulane. He also made available the Invitae test to my children and siblings.

Ed

[JPnSD]

I did Decipher...it was covered by my Medicare Advantage...but they were billed $3500 for the test. Seems high...but then my RO bills $700 for 4 min. Telemed Consults to insurance. No wonder we have a health care crisis in the US.

[DMohr011]

Mine was ordered thru Invitae as well and confirmed my Lynch broken gene EPCAM and MSH2 . From this, Dr. mentioned immunotherapy or BART is on the table for possible treatments, but nothing planned yet.