Many Cancer Patients Miss Genomic Testing, Study Finds
A JAMA Network Open study reveals roughly half of metastatic cancer patients receive genomic testing, with disparities affecting low-income, Medicare/Medicaid, and minority patients. The research highlights gaps in accessing targeted therapies despite cancer survival improvements.
A new study finds that many cancer patients never receive genomic testing that could guide them toward newer, more targeted therapies. The research, published in JAMA Network Open, examined how many patients diagnosed with one of five different metastatic cancers received genetic sequencing for their cancers, finding that 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, with the overall five-year survival rate pushing up to 70% as of 2026, and the five-year survival rate for metastatic cancer doubling 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.
For some advanced cancers, sequencing the tumor genome should be one of the first steps patients and physicians take, but the study reveals significant gaps in access to this critical diagnostic tool.