The Molecular Biomarker Test for Glioblastoma

Several people ask me about molecular biomarker testing, sometimes called genome next-generation sequencing (NGS). Although the diagnosis of glioblastoma is based on the observation of the cellular characteristics of tumor samples under the microscope, today molecular biomarkers (such as genes, gene expression patterns, mutations, proteins) are universally recognized as very important, especially to understand if targets exist for any personalized treatment. Clearly, a personalized treatment is more likely to be effective on the specific patient, especially considering that glioblastoma is also named multiforme and therefore different from patient to patient. In fact, we know that chemotherapy drugs are not equally effective on all patients

Some specialized centers offer them to their patients but certainly not all due to the cost which can be high and range from a few hundred to a few thousand Euros. Below we list some services and laboratories that offer these tests for glioblastoma patients:

• FoundationOneCDx: Uses comprehensive genomic profiling to read a patient’s tumor DNA.
• CARIS Molecular Intelligence: Performs molecular testing of DNA, RNA and proteins to identify biomarkers that drive a patient’s tumor.
• Tempus xt CDx: Performs comprehensive genomic testing with next-generation sequencing that can identify specific alterations that may influence cancer behavior.
• BostonGene: Includes comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic analysis, revealing the critical drivers of each tumor.
• Guardant360CDx: is a comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) liquid biopsy that identifies an expanded panel of actionable biomarkers.
• CeGat Cancer Neo (based in Tubingen, Germany): allows the analysis of a patient’s tumor exome.

If you know others similar services, don’t hesitate to let me know. However, the advice is to inform and ask for advice from the team of specialists who follow you case. In fact, it would be unpleasant to incur costs and perhaps highlight some possible targets if the team following you is then unable for various reasons to undertake the complex path of personalized therapy.