HCA Healthcare UK offers innovative liquid biopsy for cancer patients

HCA Healthcare UK is offering an innovative new liquid biopsy testing to its patients.

HCA UK has worked together with Guardant Health to make the Guardant 360 assay genetic test available.

This blood-based genetic test is used by oncologists to match patients with advanced cancer to targeted therapy or clinical trials, without requiring an invasive tissue biopsy.  It can detect 73 genes associated with cancer and can detect single nucleotide variants, insertion and deletion events, copy number amplifications, and fusions.

HCA UK has validated Guardant360’s analytical and clinical performance in advanced lung cancer under the supervision of Dr Tobias Arkenau, Executive Medical Director of Sarah Cannon Research Institute which is part of HCA UK.

“We are excited to offer this blood-based genetic test to our patients.  In advanced solid cancers, testing for genetic alterations often leads patients to less toxic, effective drugs either as part of standard of care or clinical trials. Tissue biopsies can be painful and sometimes pose safety risks. Now we can provide this test with a simple blood draw.”

Dr Jimmy Kwok, Head of Oncology Service, HCA Healthcare UK said;

“We are committed to offering our patients the latest advances in care and treatment and I am pleased that we can now provide liquid biopsies. “

For patients interested in accessing the latest liquid biopsy Guardant360 Assay, speak to your local oncologist for a referral to HCA UK or contact LOC directly.  This test is currently available on a self-pay basis.

Since 2008 HCA UK has invested £100m in cancer services and its cancer network in London, Essex and Manchester. HCA UK offers care and treatments for cancer patients from diagnosis to surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy, research and clinical trials and survivorship programmes.

In May 2017 HCA UK launched two state-of-the-art new facilities with a focus on cancer care; the 53-bed facility London Bridge Hospital, Private Care at Guy’s –occupies the top four floors of the new Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital. The new facility hosts the UK’s first integrated robotics theatre which includes the Da Vinci robotic system, enabling surgeons to perform complex keyhole surgery for urological procedures with faster recovery times for patients. The Sydney Street facility in Chelsea provides a range of outpatient cancer services, including outpatient cancer treatments provided by Leaders in Oncology Care (LOC). The facility also houses a blood laboratory and aseptic pharmacy manufacturing suite and a digital PET-CT scanner, one of the first in a private setting in London, to help diagnose and stage cancer earlier. Via the Sarah Cannon Research Institute patients can have access to new innovative drugs as part of their clinical trial offering.