Anticancer Drug – Anticancer drugs are used to treat cancerous growths. Drug therapy may be used alone, or in combination with other treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy.

Biomarker – Certain proteins in a woman’s tumor. These proteins can be used to predict if particular drugs are effective in treating an individual.

Breast Cancer – A disease in which abnormal cells in the breast divide and multiply in an uncontrolled fashion. Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer (10.4% of all cancer incidence, both sexes counted) and the fifth most common cause of cancer death.

CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988) – Congressional legislation that enacted quality assurance practices in clinical labs, and required the labs to measure performance at each step of the testing process from the beginning to the end of a test result

CMS – Abbreviation for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

CPT code (Current Procedural Terminology) – An accepted method developed to describe a medical service by use of a numeric code. The CPT code describes medical, surgical, and diagnostic services and is designed to communicate uniform information about medical services and procedures among physicians, coders, patients, accreditation organizations, and payers for administrative, financial, and analytical purposes.

DirectHit™ Test Panel for Breast Cancer – A diagnostic test that can help doctors determine the best drug treatment regimen for women diagnosed with breast cancer. DirectHit provides information about the tumor that may be used in addition to the standard determinations in order to prescribe the most effective anticancer drug treatment.

Gastrointestinal cancer – A disease in which abnormal cells in the gastrointestinal tract multiply in an uncontrolled fashion including the esophagus, stomach, liver, biliary system, pancreas, bowels, and anus.

Hormonal Drug – A drug which suppresses the production of estrogen in the body and is used to treat Hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers.

Oncologist – A physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Personalized Medicine – A form of medicine that uses information about a person’s genes, proteins, and environment to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease.

Protein – A large molecule composed of one or more chains of amino acids. Proteins are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s cells, tissues, and organs. Each protein has unique functions. Proteins are essential components of muscles, skin, bones and the body as a whole.

Retrospective Clinical Trial - A study that looks backward in time, usually using medical records from patients already known to have a disease.