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Why should you learn to use AI to identify opportunities for your cancer care?

- Monitor test and treatment developments for ones that may be relevant to you

- Spot missed signals and flag actionable mutations or targeted/off‑label options beyond standard guidelines

- Aggregate records across providers to personalize treatment and find relevant clinical trials 

- Schedule and monitor test results frequently (weekly) for early warning of progression or relapse

- Rehearse conversations with your medical team to effectively advocate for yourself

- Build stronger insurance appeals with organized evidence

For more from our discussion with Steve Brown, the founder and CEO of CureWise, please click on the link.

Why do you need to know about cutting-edge tests and AI for finding your best treatment options?

- RNA sequencing (which reads expression of ~20,000 genes) gives a broad, real‑time picture of your tumor biology that standard DNA panels or single biomarkers miss; it can identify likely drug sensitivity or resistance even when no actionable DNA mutations are present, enabling treatment options for you if you otherwise lack clear targets.

- AI matching rapidly analyzes your detailed tumor biology to rank your most likely effective treatments, giving you and your medical team focused, personalized options faster than traditional methods

- Functional tests (patient‑derived organoids from blood or tissue) can validate AI predictions in the lab to see which drugs actually kill your tumor cells and lower the risk of trying toxic, ineffective treatments

For more from our conversation with Precision AI Solutions Co-founder and CEO Edwin Alphonso, CSO Sophia Ren, and Cellentia Research Partner Dr. SJ Shih on ways to use RNA-seq, AI, and functional testing for marking precise cancer care decisions, please click on the link.

What should you do when a promising cancer treatment option is off‑guideline?

- Collect as much data and samples as possible: gather your fresh tumor tissue, if available, for functional testing, get whole genome DNA and RNA sequencing, get liquid biopsies 

- Validate off-guideline tests and treatments: prefer human case series or clinical reports over only animal/cell data, and prepare a one‑page summary to share with your clinician

- Work with AI and human coaches: enlist an expert in patient advocacy, help for paperwork and payment barriers

- Partner with your clinician: build rapport, be concise in visits, agree on safety/toxicity checks and response metrics; run a small experiment with close, frequent monitoring and objective measurable endpoints and stop rules

- Consider novel access routes: explore out‑of‑pocket purchase, international sourcing, compassionate/expanded access, and tissue‑management services

For more on how to access off-guideline cancer care, please see our conversation at the link.