Tumor Profiling

The Tumor Profiling Laboratory at Yale-New Haven Hospital is a CLIA-certified clinical facility that performs high throughput genotyping analyses of tumor DNA to predict the sensitivity or resistance of tumors to a variety of anti-neoplastic drugs. The overall aim of the laboratory is to provide oncologists with detailed mutational profiles of their patients’ tumors so that treatment for patients may be individually optimized--a process often referred to as personalized medicine.

The laboratory was established because of the growing number of newly developed drugs that target specific mutant proteins within malignant cells or that target critical biochemical pathways that have been altered within malignant cells as a result of mutations acquired during tumorigenesis.

Malignant cells may also possess mutations that render a tumor resistant to drug treatment, either because the mutation prevents a drug from binding to its target or because the mutation renders tumor growth independent of the protein targeted by the drug.