Philadelphia Coalition for a Cure (PC4C)
The Philadelphia Coalition for a Cure (PC4C) is a first-in-kind regional collaboration spanning across academic and healthcare systems for assessing, promoting and facilitating the use of leading technologies and clinical diagnostics on behalf of patients diagnosed with brain and other cancers.
PC4C member institutions include the Division of Neurosurgery and Center for Data Driven Discovery at CHOP; Hyundai Cancer Institute at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), and the neurosurgical departments of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University; the Drexel Neurosciences Institute at Drexel University College of Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
PC4C is empowering data-driven discovery and improving treatments for brain tumors through treatments that are individually tailored and specific to the biology of each patient’s tumor, young or old with the aim of reducing toxic side effects and increasing the therapeutic effectiveness of targeted approaches. This new targeted approach will provide researchers with access to GPS Cancer, a comprehensive molecular profiling and diagnostics test which integrates whole genome (DNA) sequencing, whole transcriptome (RNA) sequencing, and quantitative proteomics to provide oncologists with a comprehensive molecular profile of a patient’s cancer. This test, funded in-part by grants to Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC Children’s) and supplied by NantHealth Inc., can inform personalized treatment strategies and identify therapies that may have clinical benefits for the patient.
Healthcare provider Independence Blue Cross (IBC) is also at the forefront of this new initiative, by providing full-coverage for GPS Cancer testing of all IBC-insured patients at each of the participating PC4C member institutions. For non-IBC insured brain tumor patients, additional grant support will be provided to cover the cost for the GPS Cancer test.
To learn more about PC4C, visit www.pc4c.org