Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services & ONCODNA announce formation of a national tissue collection centre that will facilitate private NGS testing across the UK

DR CHENG BOON, ONCOLOGIST IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND THE NHS AS WELL AS ACTING AS ONCODNA UK MEDIAL DIRECTOR COMMENTED:

“In my view, this is an important first step in a collaboration that will make it much easier for public and privately practising oncologists to access biopsy tissue and request ONCODEEP* for the purpose of routine next generation sequencing. 

This unique public-private partnership between an innovative NHS organisaiton and a world leading cancer theranostic company is breaking down a significant barrier to biomarker testing helping clinical colleagues more easily personalise care for patients with cancer”.

DR NADINE COLLINS, CONSULTANT CLINICAL SCIENTIST IN MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS WHO IS BASED AT ROYAL SURREY NHS FOUNDATION TRUST, WHICH IS PART OF BERKSHIRE AND SURREY PATHOLOGY SERVICES RESPONDED:

“We are part of a large Pathology organisation based at an NHS Trust that hosts a tertiary cancer referral centre. As such, the Molecular Diagnostics department is always looking for new ways to support oncologists in both the public and the private sectors to find innovative treatment solutions for the benefit of their patients. Providing access to this type of in-depth biomarker testing is one such way we are able to help".

*OncoDEEP uniquely combines IHC testing and NGS testing, targeting a large cancer panel of OVER 600 GENES and cancer-specific biomarkers. It reveals patients` response to targeted therapy, immunotherapy, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and oncology clinical trials - screening for cancer gene mutations in the DNA AND RNA (BRCA mutation, KRAS mutation, EGFR mutations, etc), genomic signatures (TUMOUR MUTATIONAL BURDEN, HOMOLOGOUS RECOMBINATION DEFICIENCY AND MICROSATELLITE INSTABILITY TESTING) and protein biomarkers.