In its first major marketing effort since being fully absorbed by Roche last year, Foundation Medicine has embarked on an educational campaign to raise awareness about the approach behind its FoundationOne CDx test. 

The campaign was developed in collaboration with multiple ad agencies, primarily Wunderman Thompson Health, and is running on digital, print and TV platforms, a spokesman for the companion diagnostics test-maker said. 

Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) is a testing approach designed to surface hundreds of possible mutations in a tumor with one sample.

Through the campaign, Foundation aims to educate patients about CGP and encourage them to discuss it with their doctors. 

“Our campaign begins with awareness and continues with education, and is grounded in extensive research of the needs among the advanced cancer community,” Tom Civik, Foundation’s chief commercial officer, said via email. “We aim to provide clarity regarding the actions a patient or their loved ones can take when there is a diagnosis of advanced cancer.”

The TV ad, evoking grand cinema, opens with a young woman receiving that diagnosis from her healthcare provider. What follows is a series of flashbacks, as her mind’s eye recaps a life well lived, but also potentially cut short by a metaphorical land’s end. The flashback sequence ends abruptly with a voice, presumably that of her HCP, snapping her back to the present.  The one-minute video closes with the campaign URL, StartWithStepOne.com, and a voiceover noting how CGP “can make a real difference.”

One of the main promotional messages of the campaign is “Every cancer is unique. Your treatment plan should be, too.” Foundation explained that a CGP test can help patients with advanced cancer look ahead at their tumor’s potential developments and guide physicians in planning a personalized treatment that best suits their situation.

There’s a lot of room for growth. Only 15% of people with advanced cancer in the U.S. are getting the CGP test, 25% receive single-maker testing, which only tests for one mutation of a tumor, and about 60% are getting no genomic testing at all, according to a recent blog post by Foundation CEO Cindy Perettie, that coincided with the campaign launch.

As to its timing, “Now, more than ever, the complex world of cancer care and increasing number of potential treatment options, including targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials, demands a foundational need for a genomic roadmap,” she wrote. 

The company “worked in partnership with our Patient Community Council of dedicated patient advocates and conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative research with patients, caregivers and general population audiences” to inform the educational effort, added Perettie.

The website includes information about the research and science related to oncogenes and precision medicine, as well as offering a discussion guide to inform patient discussions with doctors about the need for testing.