Pathwork Diagnostics

Challenging tumors, including metastatic, poorly differentiated, and undifferentiated cancers

Cancers are treated according to their primary site. Accurately classifying the site of a tumor’s origin – and thus knowing what kind of cancer the patient has – helps the physician choose the best course of treatment for the patient. The American Cancer Society estimates that there are 1.4 million new cancer diagnoses annually in the United States. Of these new cases, up to 10% may be tumor types not readily classifiable in the course of the initial diagnostic workup.¹

Metastatic, undifferentiated, or poorly differentiated tumors are among the most frustrating for physicians.¹ These challenging tumors place a disproportionate burden on patients, health care professionals, and the healthcare system and can cause frustration for everyone on the treatment team and cause stress for patients and their families. Existing diagnostic technologies such as immunohistochemistry (IHC) and imaging may not provide the certainty that physicians need.

When a tumor's  origin cannot be identified, the patient may not receive tumor-specific treatments. For the health care system in general, the cost to identify the primary tumor site can be significant, since traditional approaches involve multiple diagnostic technologies that are often run more than once.