Boston — Foundation Medicine has launched an educational initiative aimed at raising awareness about the importance of quality and accuracy in cancer biomarker testing.
The initiative, called Quality First, explains how biomarker testing can support treatment decisions and how test accuracy and clarity may affect whether patients are matched with appropriate treatment options.
“At Foundation Medicine, we are transforming the future of cancer care through high-quality biomarker tests and services,” said Jennifer Romans, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Foundation Medicine. “Cancer is complex, and it requires a personalized, data-driven approach to enable confident care decisions. Not all biomarker tests are created equal and precision cancer care can only be as good as the quality and accuracy of the tests used to inform treatment.”
Quality First includes stories from patient advocates describing how biomarker testing influenced their treatment planning. It also features educational videos, a glossary of biomarker-testing terms and other informational resources.
“Patients care about test quality, because we know that accuracy is the key to unlocking the right treatment options,” said Karen Peterson, a breast cancer patient advocate. “A Foundation Medicine biomarker test detected my tumor mutational burden-high status making me eligible for a clinical trial.”
“As a patient navigating cancer, everything can seem unclear and overwhelming. We need to have accurate information presented in a way that is understandable to make informed decisions,” said Greg Wehn, a non-small cell lung cancer patient advocate. “High-quality biomarker tests like Foundation Medicine’s generate reports that distill complex results in a clear way, which helps inform how your healthcare team builds your individualized treatment plan.”
Foundation Medicine develops precision medicine tests and services intended to help physicians identify genomic changes in a patient’s cancer and use the findings to inform treatment planning.
