A Conversation With Dr. Jo-Anne Vergilio
A new year means new programs! We’d like to introduce to A Conversation With, which is a collection of conversations with healthcare leaders, including patient advocates and various healthcare professionals, to take a closer look at the topics and issues important to empowered patients, care givers, and their families.
In our first segment of A Conversation With, we spoke with Dr. Jo-Anne Vergilio the Senior Director in Pathology; Senior Associate Medical Director in Laboratory Operations, and Senior Hematopathologist at Foundation Medicine, Inc. Dr. Vergilio discusses what patients should know about biomarker testing and answers the following questions:
- How does biomarker testing work?
- How does biomarker testing help a cancer patient’s doctor with determining next steps in treatment?
- When in a patient’s course of treatment would they want to get biomarker testing?
- What is the difference between different kinds of biomarker tests?
- Single marker vs. comprehensive
- Tumor vs. liquid
- What does it mean for a biomarker test to be FDA-approved?
- If a doctor isn’t offering biomarker testing, what are some things that patients might say to their doctor?
