Next-Generation Healing: Reimagining Cancer Care

Story by Adventist HealthCare Staff

After hearing “you have cancer,” patients often want to begin treatment without a long wait.

Adventist HealthCare White Oak Cancer Center and Shady Grove Aquilino Cancer Center, in partnership with Maryland Oncology Hematology, are advancing and accelerating patient care with the launch of a lab for next generation sequencing (NGS) – one of only a few labs integrated into a physician practice in the United States.

NGS is a cutting-edge technology that allows the analysis of thousands of genes in a single test. In oncology, this testing allows physicians to uncover the unique genetic mutations that drive tumor growth. It unlocks the genetic fingerprint of the cancer, empowering an oncologist to provide the most personalized, targeted therapy for each patient.

NGS testing analyzes the constantly changing genetic mutations that promote cancer growth. This information allows oncologists to access treatments that are known to target that particular mutation and thus provide more effective and less toxic therapy.

Cell collection can vary for each cancer type. A biopsy, the removal of tissues or cells from a body, is the most common way cancerous cells are collected. In addition, small pieces of DNA that are shed from the cancer into the bloodstream can be collected and isolated through a blood draw. This provides another option for patients to have a personalized roadmap for treatment when biopsies aren’t feasible.

By adding an NGS lab, Adventist HealthCare can fast-track treatment by completing the testing within their system. Now, with the NGS lab, patients only have to wait one week for their results rather than sometimes up to three weeks previously. A cancer diagnosis is overwhelming enough, and so reducing the wait time to start treatment is a way of ministering to the mental and spiritual health of patients and their families.

To learn more about the Next Generation Sequencing Lab, listen to Adventist HealthCare's podcast at AHC.Link/NGS.