Genetic mutation test

[LouLou987]

Hi all, please does anyone have any knowledge on using a private company ( im currently in contact with Oncologica) for screening for genetic mutations? My dad is post surgery ...chemo before and chemo with radio post surgery. His scan after 12 months showed enlarged lymph nodes in his abdomen. Oncology have suggested EOX chemo and if after 3 weeks the scan shows an response then he may be considered for a clinical trial at Royal Marlsden, called Platform. I believe this is for immunotherapy and dad will be screened to see if PD-L1 is a marker for him ( he is not suitable for herceptin). My question really i guess is...the private company can test for 505 genes but I'm not sure of the efficacy or where it could lead us. Has anyone used such services and what has been your experience? Sorry for the rambled text...i may be clutching at straws but from what i understand oesophageal cancer has not had enough funding in research and so i wondered why NHS only appear to screen for only 4 mutations...? Thanks for reading , Lou

[tejags6]

Hi LouLou

My husband was unable to have surgery and so his only options have been chemo and chemoradiotherapy. He is currently on EOF.

We also went down the road of paying for he generic gene mutation tests, back in May. The results took almost 4 weeks to come back and our understanding of the results as explained by our oncologist (Dr Peter Harper at LOC) is that whilst they test for a huge amount of mutations, currently there are only 4 that immunotherapy or targeted therapy is available/suitable for. Unfortunately my husband tumour did not match any of the four.

Good luck!

[LouLou987 in reply to tejags6]

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm so sorry to hear that your husband is also living with this hideous disease, i hope he has a good response with his chemo plan. Our oncologist echoed what you said about the meds available regarding the 4 mutations, although when pressed, he also said that there may be clinical trials in europe that he would not be aware of, he mentioned Germany, Netherlands specifically where meds for gene mutations (other than the 4 we know about) may be under trial. I don't know if this is something you would like to explore? Anyway , thank you again and i wish you and your husband all the best xx