I will share a quote from one of the last cases I ever sent to Dr. Fletcher. It was a biopsy of a metastasis from carcinoma of unknown primary, which we sent out because our diagnosis differed significantly from the CancerTYPE ID result that one of our newer oncologists had ordered. Dr. Fletcher very kindly addressed this in his consult:
With regard to the Cancer TYPE ID result, I would only mention that there is nobody here at Brigham or Dana Farber that uses this testing and I know that this test is most often requested by oncologists. Over the years, we have seen many implausible results- I most clearly recollect a metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma in an elderly patient in which the CANCER TYPE ID result indicated a 90% probability that the tumor was Ewing sarcoma. The oncologist at the original community hospital somewhere in the Midwest tried to berate me for failing to recognize Ewing sarcoma at that time.
My colleagues thought this was absolutely great (and hilarious). One of the oncologists involved in that case now brings this story from Dr. Fletcher up whenever anyone suggests getting a CancerTYPE ID (e.g. during tumor board).
