The so-called “cure for cancer” isn’t one magical treatment that may or may not be secretly hidden from everyone as part of a vast conspiracy by big pharma. Today’s spray-and-pray approach to cancer treatment has varying degrees of success targeting the over 200 types of cancer, each instance of which is unique to the patient. The cure for cancer will come in two forms: early detection and precision oncology. An example of the former would be the introduction of the Pap smear which reduced cervical cancer mortality by more than 80% from 1950 to 2005.
Also referred to as “personalized medicine,” precision oncology starts with taking a genetic profile of a tumor and then figuring out what treatments will be most effective based on what worked for others with a similar genetic profile or even other matching characteristics. One company leading the charge in precision oncology is Guardant Health (GH).
About Guardant Health
Founded in 2012, San Francisco’s own Guardant Health went from an idea to a $9 billion company in just eight years with backing from investors like SoftBank, T. Rowe Price, Khosla, and Sequoia. Following their initial public offering in October of 2018, Guardant’s shares have steadily plodded upwards +155%