Talk to Your Doctor

Building Your Support Network

Precision medicine is still a fairly new concept that is emerging not only in cancer care, but in other disease areas. This means that not every cancer institution and/or oncologist is integrating precision medicine technologies into their practices. If you find that your doctor doesn’t recommend molecular profiling, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t a good candidate. It may just be that your doctor doesn’t have extensive experience with molecular profiling or doesn’t feel that it is ready to be used in clinical practice.

For these reasons, you may need to be proactive in approaching your doctor about molecular profiling to find out whether you may benefit from it.

What Should I Ask My Oncologist?

Now that you have a basic understanding of molecular profiling and its potential value in guiding the treatment plan for your cancer, it is critical to have a discussion with your oncologist. Use the “Question to Ask Your Doctor” checklist for a set of suggested questions about molecular profiling. You may ask some of the following questions:

• Should I undergo molecular profiling to test for and analyze cancer biomarkers?
• If molecular profiling is right for me, what do I need to know?
• How likely is it that molecular profiling will identify a targeted treatment for me?
• If my insurance won’t cover molecular profiling, or if my cancer treatment center doesn’t support it, what options do I have?