ASCO 2023: Recap from Feyi Ayodele, CancerIQ CEO & Co-Founder

This post originally appeared on Feyi Ayodele's LinkedIn here.

At ASCO, I saw a lot of new innovations that are accelerating the urgency to change how we think about genomics in cancer prevention and treatment.

Parp inhibitors are becoming more common for more types of cancer, illustrated by AstraZeneca’s recent announcement of Lynparza for metastatic prostate cancer.

Multi-cancer early detection tests are still making progress and positioning themselves as the new moonshot, but mst likely for an enriched, at-risk population.

But a lot of data showed we are still far away from widespread, necessary genetic testing.

Case in point: An impactful new study in JAMA made waves, finding only about 7% of oncology patients are getting access to widely covered, low out-of-pocket cost genetic testing. This is a staggering statistic when we know what kind of impact this testing can have on access to not only active treatment, but also on long-term survivorship and recurrence, and on patients’ families. 

I loved how Dr. Zsofia Stadler described the importance of this type of care and I recommend everyone read her op-ed here. 

I’m confident CancerIQ and others in our industry can fix this problem. 

I truly believe mainstreaming, or point-of-care genetic testing, is the way to move forward. It addresses the healthcare system-related barriers to genetic testing, like the shortage of genetic counselors, and also patient-related factors, like lack of awareness or fear of testing, because their trusted doctor can walk them through the process.

Importantly, a recent peer-reviewed study showed that combining point-of-care genetic testing with CancerIQ more than doubles average uptake of genetic testing for hereditary cancer syndromes. 

And finally, I’m so grateful I got to see so many partners face to face at the conference – Myriad, Ambry, Invitae, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merck and Amgen, to name a few.

Until next year!