Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs for Patients and Physicians

How much tissue is needed for the diagnosis?

In general, First Ascent requires a 5mm x 5mm live tissue section. Additional tumor material will be accepted. DNA and RNA sequencing can be performed with non-live tissue samples such as snap frozen material or FFPE tissue.

When will results be available?

Results are typically delivered to the oncologist in an average turnaround time of 10 days. A copy of the report will be available to patients upon request.

What does the report entail?

The report first and foremost states the most effective treatment option for you as found by our AI. If requested, we will also list toxicity results. If toxicity tests are requested, we will also list results from toxicity experiments to highlight safer novel combinations. This section is then followed by secondary treatment options. We do this to give options in a ranked order to your treating physician. Lastly, we provide all the data that supports the plan created by our AI and ensures you have all supporting evidence to make the correct choice for the patient.

How much does the diagnosis cost? Do you work with insurance?

We aim to never let cost of treatment slow us from helping patients with refractory or recurrent cancer find the care they need. First Ascent will also be working to provide funding for patients who are struggling with finances and are unable to pay for our service. Please contact us for service options, pricing and support.

There are 100+ different kind of cancers - do you work better with certain type of cancer?

Since patient-specific functional testing data and DNA/RNA data are at the heart of the data sets feeding our proprietary AI, our solution can be applied to all cancer types. We have worked with/tested on a wide range of cancers, from common leukemias to the rarest sarcomas. Find out more on our Resources page.