A few days ago, European Lung Cancer Week was celebrated, one of the most common types of cancers in Spain, according to the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM). That week, several organizations joined together to raise awareness about the prevention, detection and early treatment of this disease. At CIMA LAB Diagnostics, our team also supports this cause by working day by day with the tools, technology and trained staff that are needed to deliver a comprehensive diagnosis. Our co-director of the Laboratory of Solid Tumors, Dr. Ana Patiño, explains why a rapid and quality diagnosis is important, and how it is achieved.

Time economy

For the professor, the thought of genomics is in the economy of the patient's time. When a genomic study is performed, it is important to include in it all the genes that can potentially benefit the patient. The traditional form of gen-to-gen studies involves the use of a quantity of tumor that is sometimes unavailable and long waiting, a time that a patient with advanced lung cancer, for example, cannot afford. The most effective, currently, is to make a genomic study that analyzes many genes in a single study, to deliver a diagnosis in the shortest possible time. At CIMA LAB Diagnostics we achieve this through the Oncomine Comprehensive massive sequencing panel, which contains 161 genes and allows in a single test and in about ten days, to obtain a complete report of the sample that includes the complete genetic panorama of the tumor and information on the most appropriate therapy for the patient.

Cutting-edge technology

In the beginning, our laboratory panels had 50 genes and only analyzed DNA, therefore, they only identified biomarkers by mutation or amplification. The doctor explains that these panels were built thinking about what was the most frequent in cancer, however, not only enough to see how frequent, but you have to look at what can be useful clinically. For this reason, libraries were developed that also analyze RNA and a greater number of genes. The importance of enlarging libraries lies in the possibilities of exploring genes that are likely to have an assay or an off-label indication, and all types of possible alterations.