Cancer has long been a scourge of humankind and treatments and/or cures have always been iffy because every cancer, like every person, is different, observes Tony Daltorio, editor of Investors Alley's Growth Stock Advisor.
When cancer occurs, small changes in the genetic letters can change what a genomic word or sentence means. A changed letter can cause the cell to make a protein that doesn’t allow the cell to function properly. Such proteins can make cancer cells grow quickly and cause damage to neighboring cells. By studying the cancer genome, scientists can discover what letter changes are causing a cell to become cancerous.
With a better understanding of the genetic mutations, doctors will then be able to provide cancer treatment therapies that specifically target changes in the cancer's genomic profile. Information on the genomics of a patient's unique cancer will let doctors better determine the appropriate course of treatment — in effect, precision cancer treatment focusing on a person's individual cancer.
These even more targeted assessments study the DNA profile of the patient’s cancer, searching for genetic abnormalities that can be matched to a particular drug therapy that may not have otherwise been considered.
Dr. Maurie Markman, President of Medicine and Science at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, said of advanced genomic testing. “This is an incredibly powerful, positive force in medical care. We were in the Dark Ages before this.”
That bring us to Genomic Health (GHDX), our top pick for aggressive investing in the coming year. With its Oncotype IQ Genomic Intelligence Platform, the company is a pioneer in the translation of clinical and genomic big data into actionable results for treatment planning for cancer patients.
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that many women with early-stage invasive breast cancer could safely forgo chemotherapy, if they score in the mid-range or lower for risk that their cancer will recur, as measured by Genomic Health's Oncotype DX.
The results of the study — the largest breast cancer treatment trial to date — were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, where doctors hailed the results as “practice changing”. Translation: it will spare a lot of unnecessary chemotherapy in women with breast cancer. Now doctors can tell 70% of their patients that they don't need to agonize over whether to get chemo or not.
The Oncotype DX test costs $4,600 and is typically reimbursed by insurance, according to Genomic Health. The market opportunity is still there with currently only about 60% of U.S. patients who could potentially benefit from it are taking the gene test.
Genomic Health is more than a 'one-trick pony'. It is also a leader in testing for prostate cancer in men with its Oncotype DX test that takes a sample from a prostate biopsy and analyzes 17 genes in it to estimate how aggressive a cancer may be. And the company continues to expand its range of tests, making Genomic Health a buy in this new exciting field of medicine.
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