Cancer care, explained plainly
How to read your report, the kinds of treatment, and when a clinical trial is worth asking about.
Reading your report
A tumor gene test (genomic profiling, often next-generation sequencing or NGS) reads the cancer's DNA to find the changes driving it. These are the words it uses.
- Gene change (variant)
- A spelling change in the tumor's DNA. Some point straight to a drug; many do not.
- Extra copies (amplification)
- A gene copied many times over, so the tumor makes too much of what it codes for.
- Missing gene (deletion)
- Both copies gone. Often a brake on cell growth (a tumor suppressor).
- Joined genes (fusion)
- Two genes stuck together into a switch that is always on. Many fusions have a targeted pill.
- More active than usual (overexpression)
- The gene's RNA is high. On its own this rarely decides a treatment.
- Variant allele frequency (VAF)
- The share of DNA reads that carry the change. Low can mean only part of the tumor has it.
- Unknown significance (VUS)
- A change no one can yet say matters. It should not guide treatment.
- Inherited (germline)
- Most changes are in the tumor only. A few may run in families; a blood or saliva test can tell.
Lab reports sometimes list drugs for every change they find. Many of those have little evidence. Ask which ones are approved for your cancer.
Kinds of treatment
Most people get more than one. Which ones depend on the cancer type, its stage (how far it has spread) and its gene changes.
Surgery
Removes the tumor. Often the first step when it can be done safely.
Radiation
Focused high-energy beams that kill cancer cells in one area.
Chemotherapy
Drugs that kill fast-dividing cells throughout the body.
Targeted therapy
Drugs aimed at one gene change in the tumor. They work only when that change is there.
Immunotherapy
Drugs that help your own immune system find and attack the cancer.
Hormone therapy
Blocks the hormones some breast and prostate cancers need to grow.
Newer kinds include cell therapy (your own immune cells changed in a lab to attack the cancer, like CAR-T) and radioligand therapy (a drug that carries radiation straight to cancer cells).
What the labels on a treatment mean
- Approved for this cancerRegulators have approved it for your type of cancer, often only with a specific test result.
- Approved in other cancers (off-label)Allowed, but your doctor needs a good reason, and insurance may not cover it.
- Trials onlyNot approved yet. The way to get it is usually through a clinical trial.
- Unlikely to helpA finding on your report means this drug is not expected to work, or may work less well.
Why consider a clinical trial?
A clinical trial is a study that tests a new treatment, or a new way to use one, in people who volunteer. Every cancer treatment used today started as one.
New treatments, sooner
Drugs you can't get yet outside a study.
Watched closely
A specialist team checks on you often.
Never left without care
Trials add to proven treatment or compare with it. A dummy pill (placebo) alone is rare.
You can stop any time
Leave whenever you want and keep your regular care.
Often little or no cost
Study drugs and tests are often covered. Ask what's included.
Help the next patient
Every treatment used today was first proven in a trial.
Is a trial right for me?
Only you and your doctor can decide. These are the best moments to ask about trials:
When you are first diagnosed
Some trials only take people before their first treatment, so this is the best time to ask.
Before starting a new treatment
A trial may offer a newer option alongside, or instead of, the next standard one.
When a treatment stops working
Trials often test what comes next when the usual options run out.
What decides whether you can join a trial:
- The exact type of cancer and its stage (how far it has spread)
- Gene changes in the tumor (biomarkers), from tests like next-generation sequencing
- Treatments you have already had, and how they went
- How active you are day to day, and your general health
- How far you can travel, and how often
It is always fine to say no. Choosing standard treatment is a good choice too.
What to ask before you join
- What is being tested, and why might it help me?
- What could the side effects be, and how will they be handled?
- Will I still get standard treatment?
- How often do I need to come in, where, and for how long?
- What does it cost me, and what is covered (tests, travel, stays)?
- What happens if I want to stop?
- What happens after the trial ends? Can I keep the treatment if it works?
Common worries
"I would be a guinea pig."
Trials follow strict safety rules, are approved by ethics committees, and watch you more closely than usual care.
"I might get a dummy pill instead of treatment."
When a proven treatment exists, cancer trials compare against it or add to it. A placebo alone is rare.
"Trials are only a last resort."
Many trials are for people at diagnosis or after one treatment. Asking early keeps more doors open.
"Once I join, I can't leave."
You can stop at any time, for any reason, and keep your regular care.
How OpenCare works
Your reports, read with care
Names, phone numbers and ID numbers are left out of your plan. You see what we read, and can fix it in one tap.
The most authoritative information
Every treatment, test and medicine is checked against official guidance and approvals, and shows where it comes from.
Trials that are open today
Trials are searched the moment you ask, nearest first, and each one says in plain words who it is for.
Your oncologist decides
We help you ask the right questions. We never tell you what to take.
We keep your reports and plan so you can see them again, on any phone. Only you and our care team see them; delete them anytime from My record. Your country preference is saved in your own browser only. AI can miss things or get them wrong, so treat everything here as a question for your doctor, not an answer.
Words you'll see
- Clinical trial
- A study that tests a new treatment, or a new way to use one, in people who volunteer.
- Phase 1
- Is it safe, and what dose? Small groups, often people who have tried other treatments.
- Phase 2
- Does it work? A few dozen to a few hundred people.
- Phase 3
- Is it better than the treatment doctors use today? Hundreds to thousands of people.
- Phase 4
- Already approved. Studied further to learn more.
- Randomized
- A computer decides which group you join, so the comparison is fair.
- Placebo
- A dummy treatment. In cancer trials it is usually given on top of standard care, not instead of it.
- Open label
- You and your doctors know which treatment you get.
- Recruiting
- Taking new people now. "Not yet recruiting" means opening soon.
- Biomarker
- A gene change or protein in the tumor, like EGFR or HER2. Many new drugs only work when it is there.
- Line of therapy
- Where you are in treatment. First line is the first treatment; second line comes after that.
- ECOG
- A 0 to 4 score for how active you are day to day. 0 is fully active; most trials ask for 0 to 1 or 0 to 2.
- Metastatic
- The cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
- Refractory
- The cancer stopped responding to a treatment.
- Basket trial
- A trial open to many cancer types that share the same gene change.
- Off-label
- A drug approved for one cancer, used for another. Allowed, but it needs a good reason.
- MSI-high
- The tumor cannot fix DNA copying mistakes well (microsatellite instability). Immunotherapy often helps.
- TMB
- Tumor mutational burden: how many gene changes the tumor has. A high number can mean immunotherapy works better.
- Germline
- A gene change you were born with, in every cell of the body. It can run in families.