Guardant360® is a liquid biopsy. This laboratory test is performed with a blood sample from cancer patients in an advanced stage (stage III or IV) in order to find an appropriate therapy option for a therapy with targeted drugs.
Moreover Guardant360® can be used for monitoring and aftercare of a cancer therapy.
Guardant360® is offered by Guardant Health and performed in their laboratories in California, USA. TherapySelect as German cooperation partner takes care of German customers and provides the transmission of patient samples to Guardant Health and test reports to customers.
Guardant360® can be applied for all solid tumors. It cannot be applied for hematological tumors like leukemia for example. However the cancer has to be in an advanced stage, which means stage III or IV and the planned therapy must be a targeted therapy. Chemotherapies for example cannot be tested.
For monitoring and aftercare of cancer therapies liquid biopsy can be used for all forms of cancer therapy, if it should be determined how high the level of ctDNA is.
Patients only have to provide a blood sample. Thus there is no biopsy or other intervention necessary.
The benefit of Guardant360® for patients is clinically validated and the test is applied by numerous oncologists. Because of its special sequencing technique it is 1000x more specific than other sequencing methods. In contrast to tests for which tumor tissue has to be removed via surgery or biopsy, Guardant360® is non-invasive. Thus this test can be applied for patients with an inoperable tumor or where a biopsy is not feasible or where biopsy material is not sufficient. Furthermore Guardant360® takes the tumor heterogeneity into account.
With Guardant360® the efficacy of so-called targeted drugs can be tested. Chemotherapeutics cannot be tested.
The result is ready approximately 2 weeks after arrival of the blood sample in the laboratory. The test report is sent to TherapySelect and transferred to the treating physician.
The report contains information, which mutations of specific genes are present in a patient and which conclusions could be drawn for the efficacy of a therapy with targeted drugs. Thereby a potentially efficient targeted therapy should be found for patients and inefficient therapies should be avoided. This serves to support physicians during therapy planning.
To some extent drugs are suggested as therapy option which are not yet approved and are still in clinical trials. There is the possibility that patients take part in these clinical studies if corresponding conditions are fulfilled.
In addition the report contains information about the ctDNA level.
Since for liquid biopsy no expensive, complex and risky test methods are required, it would be an attractive alternative for early detection of cancer. Guardant Health works on the usage of their technology for early detection of cancer. However, up till now there is no test for early detection of cancer based on liquid biopsy available.
For the first application the price of Guardant360® is 3,500.00 Euro.
For a further application for monitoring of a therapy each additional test costs 2,800.00 Euro.
For a further application for monitoring of a therapy each additional test costs 2,800.00 Euro.
The test can be ordered directly at TherapySelect from patients or physicians. The kit is sent to the corresponding address afterwards. The blood has to be drawn from a physician and the physician has to sign the enclosed requisition form. The blood sample is sent back to TherapySelect and we transfer the sample to the USA to the laboratory of Guardant Health.
In the case of further questions about Guardant360® you can contact TherapySelect Dr. Frank Kischkel, who gladly answer your questions and support you.
