For some advanced cancers, sequencing the tumor genome should be one of the first steps patients and physicians take. But a new study finds that many patients never receive genomic testing and so never get the chance to know if they might have benefitted from newer, more targeted therapies.
The study, published on Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, examined how many patients diagnosed with one of five different metastatic cancers received genetic sequencing for the cancers. For most cancers in the study, roughly half of patients in the cohort received genetic sequencing. Patients with low income, Medicare or Medicaid coverage, and Black or Hispanic race or ethnicity were also less likely to receive sequencing.
Cancer medicine and research have made enormous progress over the last few decades. The overall five-year survival rate has pushed up to 70% as of 2026, and the five-year survival rate for metastatic cancer has doubled since the 1960s. That’s in large part thanks to advances in medicines and technologies that can help treat cancer, like targeted therapies that work by exploiting key cancer mutations.
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