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Practice Precision Medicine Through Gene Sequencing and Analysis


Understanding which gene mutations occur in your patient’s tumor and how they affect cancer-related cell signaling pathways to drive tumor growth provides the key to finding a suitable personalized therapy. More and more studies highlight the strong association between the genetic alterations of a patient’s tumor and the success of using tailored targeted therapies. These targeted therapies are already commonly used for some cancer types, such as for lung cancer, but are effective in a wide variety of cancer types.

ACT Genomics performs comprehensive genetic testing for your patient’s cancer. We analyze samples by next-generation sequencing with subsequent bioinformatics data processing and then utilize clinical databases to identify most promising matching tailored treatment options for your patients!


Multiple Choices for Cancer Genomic Information Testing at Any Given Stage

ACT Genomics provides pan-cancer panels and cancer-specific panels to serve patients with solid tumors. The panels designed for the analysis of important genes associated with targeted therapies are ACTDrug®+ and ACTOnco®+. We offer ACTMonitor™ and ACTBRCA™ to provide further information for treatment and cancer monitoring; the panel ACTRisk™ can identify individuals with an enhanced cancer risk and enable preventive actions.

With years of experience in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and clinical settings, we are capable of handling various specimens, including FFPE, frozen tissue, core needle biopsy, pleural effusion and ascites samples. With just a fraction of precious specimens, we can achieve an average sequencing depth of 1,000X to detect genetic alterations with high sensitivity. We are dedicated to deliver highly accurate results that cover all aspects of cancer, from diagnosis and treatment selection to disease monitoring. Our comprehensive report, including genomic alteration status, the biological function of mutated genes, our in-house curated cancer signaling pathways and therapeutic implications, covers the most relevant clinical evidence. It supports physicians to translate genomic information into a tailored treatment and to make the best therapeutic decision for their patients.


Key Features:

  • Intuitive report with therapeutic implication.
  • Clinical grade reliability, sensitivity, specificity.
  • Ability to work with limited FFPE samples and a variety of specimens.
  • Clinically relevant turn-around time.
  • Broad coverage to investigate all critical cancer pathways.
  • Deep coverage to detect mutations with low allele frequency.
  • CAP certified clinical laboratory.

 

Find more treatment options for your patients now!

Cancer Treatment

Identify more evidence-based treatment options

We have different genomic profiling services which can satisfy individual patients’ needs. Using genetic testing before cancer treatment can help you to develop a better treatment strategies for your patients. To understand which therapy bests suits your patient, it is important to understand the mechanism driving the growth of your patient’s tumor. Since 300 to 400 genes in different cancer signaling pathways may be involved in this process, comprehensive genomic profiling services are required for thorough analysis. ACTOnco®+ is a comprehensive tumor genomic profiling service that covers more than 400 cancer-related genes to uncover the cancer mechanism of your patient and find the most appropriate matching targeted therapy based on a whole pathway analysis.

ACTDrug®+ is a tumor genetic test that precisely analyses carefully selected cancer-related genes with well-defined therapeutic implications, especially for patients with breast, lung and colorectal cancer.

ACTBRCA ™ detects germline and somatic mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes. The test is therefore capable to identify patients with breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer that may benefit from targeted therapy by PARP inhibitors and informs about an inherited risk for developing those specific cancers.

 

If you would like to have a comprehensive evaluation of chemotherapy and targeted therapy choices for your patient, you may consider using our comprehensive genomic profiling service: ACTOnco®+.

If you would like to have an evaluation of targeted therapy choices for your patient, you may consider using our targeted genomic profiling service: ACTDrug ®+

If you would like to have an evaluation for specific drug choices for your patient, you may consider using our BRCA1/2 analyzing panel, ACTBRCA™


ACTOnco®+


ACTDrug®+


ACTBRCA™

Cancer Monitoring

Monitor treatment efficiency using liquid biopsy

Monitoring tumor relapse and therapy success by imaging methods or traditional cancer biomarkers such as CEA only allow a delayed assessment of tumor development. These tests are less accurate than liquid biopsy tests that detect circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the blood. ACTMonitor™ detects changes in the levels of ctDNA fast and accurately and therefore allows a real-time monitoring of changes in tumor burden. The test informs you about therapy success, resistance and tumor relapse very early and enables you to make faster adaptions of your patient’s treatment. If you would like to monitor treatment more effectively for your patient, you may consider using our ctDNA detection service, ACTMonitor ™

 


ACTMonitor™

Immunotherapy Evaluation

Predict Immunotherapy Response

Cancer immunotherapy can have impressive long-lasting effects, but not all patients are likely to benefit from this costly treatment. Patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors respond better to immunotherapy if their tumors harbor high mutation burden.

ACTOnco™ helps you to evaluate the patient- specific tumor mutation burden and to predict if your patient is likely to benefit from using immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors.

 

If you would like to predict if you are suitable for immunotherapy, you may consider using our immunotherapy response prediction service, ACTOnco ™

 


ACTOnco™

Cancer Prevention

Identify high risk groups for hereditary cancer

Germline mutations in cancer-related genes occur in about 10 % of all cancer cases, revealing the importance of family cancer history and early cancer screening. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimated that 20-30% of all colorectal cancers (CRCs) are familial, including two major types of inherited CRC, hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) reported that BRCA mutation carriers have an increased risk of developing breast cancer (54-85%), ovarian cancer (40-60%), and prostate cancer (20%).

Your cancer patients may have inherited mutations in cancer-related genes, and their family members may therefore have higher risk of developing cancer. It is recommended for family members of patients with such mutations to use hereditary genetic testing to assess their hereditary cancer risk, and to follow-up regularly to prevent cancer as early as possible.

 

If you would like to identify high risk groups for hereditary cancer, you may consider using our risk assessment service: ACTRisk™


ACTRisk™

Clinical News

Service Process

Step 1.

Optimized Preparation for Diverse Samples

We are highly experienced and possess professional high standard procedures in the challenging process of retrieving DNA from FFPE samples for sequencing. Our scientists have optimized the methodology to consistently achieve successful sequencing with highly accurate results. In addition to FFPE samples, our platform also works with core needle biopsies, pleural effusion, ascites, blood samples, and buccal swaps.

 

Step 2.

NGS Platform with International Certification

ACT Genomics has established a state-of-the-art next generation sequencing (NGS) platform. Sequencing is performed on Ion Personal Genome Machines, Ion Proton sequencers and Illumina MiSeq; ACT Genomics is an Ion Torrent™ Certified Service Provider.

 

Step 3.

Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis

ACT Genomics integrates advanced annotation and visualization tools, coupled with public and proprietary databases to deliver comprehensive and comprehensible reports.

 

Step 4.

Comprehensive Medical Report

With accurate genomic profiling, visualizing genes with alterations in known cancer pathways and providing potential matching cancer targeted treatments from FDA and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines, mutated sub-network in known pathways, as well as references, ACT Genomics aims to deliver a concise, reliable and actionable meaningful clinical report.

Service Overview

1 Turnaround time is counted after the received sample passes ACT Genomics sample quality control test
2 Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE)
3 Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC)

 

Q&A

Yes. For many patients, we are able to identify genetic alterations which are associated with sensitivity or resistance to chemotherapy or endocrine therapies. This information is included in our clinical reports.

Liquid biopsies are best suited to monitor a patient’s tumor burden. Certain genetic alterations that are associated with therapy sensitivity and resistance can also be detected, and this information can provide therapeutic guidance for some patients. However, due to the low tumor DNA proportion in the blood, much information about genetic alterations in a patient’s tumor are lost in liquid biopsies compared to tumor samples. The gene number and exon coverage are limited in those assays, and the detection of copy number alterations remains difficult. For an evaluation of therapeutic choices, tumor samples should be used if available.

Traditional cancer treatment does not consider results of comprehensive genetic testing. However, scientific and clinical evidence show that guiding therapeutic choices by genetic testing greatly increases the proportion of patients who benefit from the treatment, leading to improved clinical outcomes. Note: There is substantial evidence that precision medicine is improving clinical outcomes for cancer patients. For example, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of California, San Diego published data from clinical studies demonstrating that therapy selection based on the results of genetic testing can improve overall survival. Furthermore, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) are currently conducting large precision medicine clinical trials to demonstrate that precision medicine leads to improved clinical outcomes.

We will discuss therapeutic options with treating physicians based on data such as gene mutation frequency, affected cancer signaling pathways and the patient’s cancer type. We also provide information about the results of related clinical trials to help with the evaluation of therapeutic choices.

The test ACTOnco®+ provides comprehensive testing including more than 400 cancer-related genes and can be used for all solid tumor types. Similarly, the panel ACTMonitor™ can be used to monitor the tumor burden of patients with solid tumors. Some other panels or subpanels, such as ACTDrug®+, ACTBRCATM and cancer type specific ACTMonitor™ subpanels, are designed for patients with certain cancer types.