New Frontiers in Cancer Treatment:

The Sequoia Hospital Foundation was pleased to receive a recent generous gift of $250,000 to help establish a Precision Biopsy Center to serve Sequoia’s community.  This innovative concept to optimize biopsy – a fundamental part of cancer treatment – is being pioneered at Sequoia by Anobel Tamrazi, MD, PhD.

Dr. Tamrazi, an Interventional Radiologist (IR), performs image-guided procedures, including biopsies and cancer treatments.  He is focused on making procedures that are most often only available in major academic medical centers, easily accessible to the broader community, where most patients are treated. 

Proper biopsy sampling and comprehensive analysis are crucial to treating cancer, but not available to many cancer patients.  The Precision Biopsy Center’s mission is to advance cancer treatment by optimizing the two steps of clinically useful biopsy: (1) obtaining a quality sample which can be analyzed and (2) arranging for optimal analysis of that sample so oncology teams can identify the best treatment options.  

The Precision Biopsy Center’s unique, patient-focused approach to biopsy will result in better samples, more reliably.  For comprehensive analysis of the samples obtained, Sequoia’s Center will identify and work with those companies which have the most advanced molecular analysis platforms.  Such molecular analysis allows for treatment options targeted toward a patient’s particular cancer, known as Immuno-Oncology or Precision Cancer Care.  The Center will make this state of the art analysis easily available to our community.  

The Sequoia Hospital Foundation is proud to be able to provide funding for this exciting new approach to biopsy and looks forward to working with Dr. Tamrazi as his work to improve cancer treatment proceeds.