A nonprofit lab in Bothell is doubling down on a cancer test that tries drugs out on a patient's own tumor cells before a doctor ever writes a prescription. Cure First says it will more than double the testing capacity of its CLIA-certified Bothell laboratory over the next year, with a goal of serving more than 240 patients annually, while also hiring additional scientific staff to meet rising demand.
The expansion centers on the PARIS Test, which exposes a patient's live, biopsied tumor cells to dozens of chemotherapies and targeted drugs to help oncologists figure out which therapy might offer the greatest benefit in the next line of treatment, according to BioSpace. The test is available in all 50 states through Cure First's Bothell facility and is optimized for all solid-tumor cancers, the outlet reports. Cure First was founded by Carla Grandori, MD, PhD, who serves as its president and scientific director.
How the Test Works
Rather than relying solely on genomic sequencing, the PARIS Test adds functional information by testing living tumor cells against multiple therapies, according to Cure First's own site. The approach grew out of a broader scientific push described as functional precision medicine — a strategy in which live tumor cells from patients are directly exposed to drugs to generate personalized, immediately translatable information for guiding therapy, per a study indexed on PubMed. The PARIS Test itself was developed as a functional precision-oncology platform built on patient-derived organoids cultured from biopsy or tumor-resection samples, according to a piece in Nature.
Since its creation, the test has been deployed in 1,300 patient-derived tumor models spanning more than 40 cancer types, the BioSpace release states. More than one-third of those samples supported research studies demonstrating feasibility and clinical utility, the same release notes. Grandori has previously said that, as reported at ASCO 2021, the PARIS Test showed strong predictive power, with more than 70% of patients' clinical responses matching the organoid assay results, according to the Nature report.
Case Reports Point to Dramatic Outcomes
Cure First points to several individual patient cases to illustrate the test's potential. In one, a patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer achieved a complete remission lasting three years after receiving PARIS-guided therapy when conventional treatment options had been exhausted, per the BioSpace release. In another, a patient with a rare ovarian cancer entered remission for more than two years after receiving PARIS-guided therapy while in hospice care, the release states.
A separate case documented by Nature described the PARIS Test guiding clinicians to a drug approved by the FDA only for certain hematological cancers as the most likely effective therapy for a patient with terminal ovarian cancer who wasn't responding to standard treatment. And in 2023, SEngine Precision Medicine reported a case in which the test identified ibrutinib as a top candidate for a patient with progressing low-grade serous ovarian cancer, according to CLP Magazine. Ibrutinib monotherapy was associated with the cessation of opioid-based pain management, the patient's exit from hospice care, and 15 months of stable disease, that outlet reported.
A Growing Field With Institutional Backers
The push to expand functional testing is not happening in isolation. The American Society of Clinical Oncology issued a clinical notice clarifying its support for advancing modern functional precision medicine, citing technological advances in the field, the BioSpace release notes. National Cancer Institute Director Anthony Letai has also named functional precision medicine a priority research opportunity in the institute's Fiscal Year 2028 Professional Judgment Budget, per the same release.
A study published in Cancer Research Communications demonstrated how the PARIS Test can guide treatment selection in late-stage biliary tract cancer beyond DNA-based biomarkers, BioSpace reports. Similar efforts are underway elsewhere: researchers at UCLH and UCL are running the international SAFIR-ABC10 trial, which aims to recruit roughly 800 participants with biliary tract or gallbladder cancer worldwide and offer them one or more of seven anti-cancer therapies matched to their tumor's genetic profile, according to UCLH. That trial targets genetic alterations involving FGFR2, IDH1, HER2 and BRAF, the hospital trust notes — a genomics-based approach distinct from the live-cell drug testing Cure First offers.
Cost Remains a Barrier
Despite the clinical interest, the PARIS Test is not currently covered by most insurance companies, according to the BioSpace release, leaving Cure First to rely on philanthropic support to keep the test available to patients. The nonprofit's expansion plans hinge on that continued fundraising as it works to scale its Bothell lab and bring on more scientific staff to handle the anticipated growth in patient volume.
