Stuart L. Goldberg, MD, On the Role of the Multidisciplinary Approach in Biomarker Testing

Stuart L. Goldberg, MD, from Hackensack University Medical Center, spoke with CancerNetwork® about the role that the multidisciplinary approach plays in biomarker testing and the importance of coordination in this setting. 

Transcription:

In order to do biomarkers, you have to coordinate and get the sample properly. Many of our patients with colon cancer, with lung cancer, they’re not seeing the oncologist first. The biopsies are being done by the pulmonologists, by the gastroenterologist, and those samples may then go to a pathologist who doesn’t think about the diagnosis, or if they get the diagnosis, they then fail to then talk to the oncologist early and send the samples off. And so, we need to coordinate between the primary care physician, the person who’s making the diagnosis at the tissue level, the pathologist who gets that sample, and the oncologist to make sure that everyone’s on the same page as to what type of genetic profiling needs to be done and how to do it in a cost effective manner. We don’t need to spend lots of money on tests that we’re not going to be doing if the patient’s not going to be getting therapy. But on the other hand, if the patient is going to be getting therapy, we want to make sure that all the right tests are being done.