When a patient may have cancer, physicians confront a chain of pressing questions: What type of cancer is it?  Which treatments are most likely to work? Finding the answers to these questions quickly and accurately is vital.

By providing this information, Center for Medical Genetics can help the right  treatment to start now.  We enable both patients and payers to benefit from more effective — and cost-effective — cancer management.

We provide a comprehensive report to help cancer specialists correctly diagnose hematologic specimens, establish prognosis in many cancers, including breast and determine optimal treatment in an increasing number of cancers.

Hematopoietic Malignancies
Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are hematopoietic or blood borne cancers that originate in the bone marrow (leukemia and myeloma) or in lymphatic tissues (lymphoma). They are related cancers because they involve the uncontrolled growth of cells with similar functions and origins. The diseases result from an acquired, not inherited, genetic injury to the DNA of a single cell, that becomes abnormal (malignant) and multiplies continuously. The accumulation of malignant cells interferes with the body's production of healthy blood cells and makes the body unable to protect itself against infections.

These are a diverse group of cancers, with the distinctions between types based on the characteristics of the cancerous cells. Each group is diagnosed and treated differently, and each has prognostic factors that categorize it as more or less favorable. Hematopoietic malignancies constitute an ideal model for demonstrating the value and necessity of applying multiple cutting-edge technologies for their diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

Immunohistochemistry and/or Flow Cytometry
Morphology is still the “gold standard” for many hematologic diagnoses and continues to serve as the first step in evaluation to determine which of the more complex diagnostic tools should be used for further investigation. Flow cytometry is a rapid and flexible way to measure the properties of individual cells. Some of the applications in which Center for Medical Genetics utilizes these tools are:

Cytogenetics
Cytogenetics is the study of normal and abnormal chromosomes. The study includes examination of chromosome structure, the relationship between genotype and phenotype, and the cause of chromosome abnormalities. Some of the applications in which Center for Medical Genetics utilizes these tools are:

Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH)
FISH is a rapid technique for the evaluation of both dividing and non-dividing cells. It is a valuable tool in disease monitoring and may be performed on peripheral blood. Some of the applications in which Center for Medical Genetics utilizes these tools are:

Molecular Pathology
PCR is a process for amplifying one or more specific DNA sequences contained in nucleic acids and is useful in cases where only small amounts of sample are available. Some of the applications in which Center for Medical Genetics utilizes these tools are: