The Know Your Biomarker Advocacy Toolkit was created to help advocates join the global effort to ensure all colorectal cancer patients have access to biomarker testing.
Know Your Biomarker
Know Your Biomarker is an awareness, education, and advocacy campaign advocating for global access to colorectal (bowel) cancer biomarker testing. Through the Know Your Biomarker program, the Global Colon Cancer Association advocates for biomarker testing for all colorectal cancer patients, because where you live should not determine whether you can prevent or survive colorectal cancer.
Know Your Biomarker advocates for biomarker testing access at all levels by working with individual advocates, non-profit organizations, industry partners, and policymakers. The Know Your Biomarker Advocacy Toolkit was created to help you join the global effort to ensure all colorectal cancer patients have access to biomarker testing.
Thanks for posting with us. Biomarker testing is definitely not an American effect. Our org advocates for the availability and access to biomarker testing for all cancer patients around the world, especially colon cancer patients. In fact, when I was diagnosed in 2012, it was not standard of care at my cancer center. It is now and it’s covered by many insurance companies due to the benefits it provides in a diagnosis and therapy determination.
In this age of personalized therapies, biomarkers can lead you to know what therapies will be the most beneficial, which ones to absolutely avoid that would be detrimental to your fight, and determine if there is a hereditary aspect which would lead to family members getting tested and determine possible surveillance testing to avoid or catch a cancer early in development when it’s most treatable.
I hope you are doing well because of your treatment. I hope you benefited from the chemo you received. Some cancers do respond well to that. Look at the attached chart of the biomarkers associated with colon cancer. These are the ones we know about today, but more will be discovered in the future. In my case, biomarker testing let me know I was MSI-h with dMMR (deficient mis-match repair) in the MLH1 gene. This means cancer can hide from my immune system. I had a hereditary aspect called Lynch Syndrome. I did over 2 years of chemo and then a clinical trial found I may benefit from an immunotherapy drug and it worked. My biomarkers were similar to those that were gaining benefit from this immuno drug, so we did the trial. I was on the trial for over 2 years. Knowing what we know now, chemo therapies are not effective for me. Today, those colon cancer patients with the same biomarkers I have (MSI-h) would not be given chemotherapy. Those with a different biomarker would not respond well to immuno therapies and thus should avoid them.
You do bring up a good point that not everyone given a cancer diagnosis will get biomarker testing. In this age of personalized medicine, they should be. Absolutely.
~Tom, GCCA Survivor - Colon Cancer Connected Site Administrator.
Just a reminder - this group is here to offer support, share experiences, and offer our thoughts - but this is not medical advice, and you should always consult your medical professional(s). Additionally, for all emergencies, seek urgent medical care, never delay.
Thanks for posting with us. I think at this point you are dealing with two different things here. The gemome and what that says about you and your family (hereditary) versus what is causing the blood in your stool.
I would think an entire genome test would reveal any genetic mutations you may have. The best thing would be to have a Genetic Counselor help determine what your genome test reveals. Perhaps that is offered by sequencing.com. What were some of the follow up procedures that could be done once the genome test was complete? That is a lot of data. There should be some specific ways to determine the health aspects that it reveals. The potential to develop certain diseases. Are there any hereditary genes or mutations that would be good to know and perhaps start a surveillance program to detect them early. I see there is an AI Search capability. You could try searching on the different biomarkers … (this may be just raw data that may need interpretation?)
The A-C-T-G are the four types of bases found in a DNA molecule: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). However, this may be raw data and they want you to buy a report.
All that data is fine, but it won’t tell you what is causing the blood. Ex.: if you cut your arm, it wouldn't be in your genome that you have a cut on your arm. And I’m not sure how familiar your doctor is going to be reading a genomic profile. You need to get to the bottom of what is causing the blood in the stool and get on a path to being well. Your doctor can do that. It could be caused by many different things and just needs to be narrowed down. The colonoscopy will go a long way to getting you answers. Don’t let your doctor shrug off symptoms. You need answers.
Please let us know what you find out from your colonoscopy. That information can be helpful to others on this site as well.
~Tom, GCCA Survivor - Colon Cancer Connected Site Administrator.
Just a reminder - this group is here to offer support, share experiences, and offer our thoughts - but this is not medical advice, and you should always consult your medical professional(s). Additionally, for all emergencies, seek urgent medical care, never delay.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Just diagnosed with colon cancer
Beyond frustrated 
Rectal cancer
I'm 75 years old and during a colonoscopy today, my doctor found 10 precancerous plops and one, malignant-looking mass at the end of colon. 
Terrified.....
