Treatment Effectiveness Testing evaluates how therapies may perform against your cancer—helping reduce guesswork and improve confidence in treatment decisions.
Treatment Effectiveness Testing (often called ex vivo testing or chemo-sensitivity testing) uses live or viable tumor material to assess responses to therapies outside the body.
Instead of trying keys in the lock (your body), you test the keys on a copy of the lock first.
Many cancer treatment plans start with a standard protocol. But cancers that look similar under a microscope can behave very differently.
This type of testing can help support:
(Note: It’s a decision-support tool, not a guarantee. Results must be interpreted by the care team.)
No. Genomics helps identify what may be driving the cancer; treatment effectiveness testing focuses on how the cancer cells respond to therapies.
No. It adds information to support decisions with your care team.
Treatment Effectiveness Testing evaluates how multiple therapies perform against your specific cancer cells—helping reduce guesswork and improve confidence before initial treatment decisions are made. Instead of testing one treatment at a time in the patient, preserved tumor tissue may be tested against up to 300 potential cancer treatments in the lab to help identify which therapies appear most effective at killing your unique cancer cells.
That matters because your doctor can typically only try one treatment at a time in your body, then wait weeks or months to see whether it is working. Treatment Effectiveness Testing helps your care team compare more options earlier, avoid ineffective therapies and move forward with greater confidence based on how your own cancer responds outside the body.
Treatment Effectiveness Testing (often called ex vivo testing or chemo-sensitivity testing) uses live or cryopreserved tumor tissue to assess responses to therapies outside the body.
Instead of trying various keys that might look correct in the lock (your body), you test the keys on a copy of the lock first, so that when you put it in your body – it works the first time.
Many cancer treatment plans start with a standard protocol. But cancers that look similar under a microscope can behave very differently.
This type of testing can help support:
Who is this for?
Treatment Effectiveness Testing may be especially valuable for patients facing cancers where treatment decisions are complex, recurrence risk is high, or multiple therapy options may be considered.
Cancer types commonly associated with this need include:
Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is often treated with combinations of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and other approaches. When viable tumor tissue is available, treatment-effectiveness testing may help identify which therapies show the strongest activity against that patient’s own cancer cells.
Pancreatic Cancer
Because pancreatic cancer can be aggressive and treatment windows may be limited, preserving high-quality tissue may help protect access to additional testing options and clinical trial opportunities.
Colorectal Cancer
Advanced or recurrent colorectal cancer may involve multiple treatment pathways, including chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy in certain biomarker-defined cases, and clinical trials.
Lung Cancer
Lung cancer treatment is increasingly guided by tumor biology, biomarkers, and treatment response. Preserving tissue may help support deeper analysis and future testing needs.
Breast Cancer
Breast cancer includes many subtypes, and treatment decisions may vary based on receptor status, recurrence risk, prior therapy, and tumor biology.
No. Genomics helps identify what may be driving the cancer; treatment effectiveness testing focuses on how the cancer cells respond to therapies.
No. It adds information to support decisions with your care team.
