Tumor Preservation
The last thing you want to think about when you are fighting cancer is preserving your tumor. After all, the point of treatment is to get rid of it, right? In reality, tumor preservation can open up a world of diagnostic and treatment possibilities.What is Tumor Preservation?
Tumor preservation is exactly what it says. During surgery, the tissue and fluid from your tumor are preserved for further study at a later time. It is ideal for every cancer patient, but especially those who are interested in personalized treatment, targeted at the genetic makeup of their tumor.
For those who are just beginning their treatment journey, tumor preservation can help an oncology team determine the most effective treatments for their cancer before introducing medications (and their toxic side effects) that may not work. It can also identify experimental therapies that are outside of the standard of care that may be more effective than traditional treatment methods.
For those who are in the midst of a frustrating and ineffectual battle with cancer, tumor preservation offers access to the best technologies in the world, that are often beyond chemotherapy and radiation – treatments like cellular immunotherapies.
Rather than dealing with the side effects of ineffective drugs in an attempt to treat a chemo-resistant disease, tumor preservation allows clinicians to test a variety of drugs in a lab on real tissue before introducing them to your body.
Tumor preservation can also help enable clinicians to design personalized immunotherapies that stimulate the immune system.
How is Tumor Preservation done?
Once you have completed the registration process, a specialized collection kit is sent to your home or hotel.
Many larger cancer centers already have tumor preservation kits on site, ready for collection on surgery day.
On the day of surgery, you deliver the collection kit to the surgical team who places the tumor tissue in the kit and calls the courier for pick up. The courier then delivers the collected specimen to our lab where we cryopreserve it.
Within a few days, your oncologist will receive a report about what we have stored. Once storage is complete, you or your oncologist can instruct us to send tumor tissue or fluid to any destination you choose.
Not only do we help you research some of the most common applications for your tissue, but we can also help you prioritize which uses are right for you.
I have last-minute surgery. Can I still preserve my tumor?
We know that in some cases, tumor surgery is scheduled within a few hours or a few days.
Many of the large cancer centers across the country have our collection kits on hand in their pathology departments for just such emergencies. However, if you are not having surgery at one of these centers, we can coordinate collection and transport processes that meet both your needs and your timeline.
If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer, your job is to find the treatment processes that will give you the longest survival with the best quality of life. Tumor preservation plays a key role in studying your tumor and identifying the best treatments possible. Call today to schedule your free consultation and find out if tumor preservation is right for you.
