Cure First, a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit expanding access to functional precision medicine for patients with hard-to-treat cancers, today announced plans to more than double its testing capacity over the next year, providing the PARIS Test to more than 240 patients annually, while hiring additional scientific staff to meet rising demand. The expansion comes as oncologists increasingly adopt functional precision medicine amid growing institutional support for the approach.
“We built Cure First on the mission to advance the research needed to bring functional precision medicine to every cancer patient,” said Carla Grandori, MD, PhD, Founder, President and Scientific Director of Cure First. “Now we’re seeing that need grow and we’re building the capacity to meet it. We’re scaling our lab and partnering with leading oncologists and institutions to advance the clinical research needed to build the evidence that will make functional testing part of the future standard of care.”
This summer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology issued a clinical notice clarifying its support for advancing modern functional precision medicine to improve outcomes for patients with cancer, citing the technological advances of the field reported by the Society for Functional Precision Medicine. National Cancer Institute Director Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, who founded the society in 2017, has also named functional precision medicine a priority research opportunity in the institute’s Fiscal Year 2028 Professional Judgment Budget.
A new study published in Cancer Research Communications, authored by Cure First scientific leadership and clinical collaborators, demonstrated how the PARIS Test can be used to guide treatment selection in late-stage biliary tract cancer beyond DNA-based biomarkers.
This study adds to a growing number of case reports where patients received PARIS-guided therapy and experienced meaningful outcomes. In one case published in JCO Precision Oncology, a patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer achieved complete remission lasting three years after conventional treatment options had been exhausted. In another, published in Nature Precision Oncology, a patient with a rare form of ovarian cancer who was entering hospice care received PARIS-guided therapy and went on to a remission for more than two years.
“For this patient, we were running out of options when functional testing indicated a clear path forward. I am now writing a 21-case cohort study and it is my hope to be able to start a clinical study soon for this rare and difficult-to-treat ovarian cancer,” said Elizabeth Swisher, MD, Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Washington. “I’m excited to utilize the PARIS Test, offered by Cure First in the PROSPERITY study, to validate this approach in the prospective setting and define where it can best inform care.”
The approach was pioneered by Grandori at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and later developed into a pan-cancer test at SEngine Precision Medicine. The test has been deployed in 1,300 patient-derived tumor models across more than 40 cancer types, with more than one third of samples supporting research studies to demonstrate feasibility and clinical utility. Cure First is committed to providing oncologists with functional data to inform treatment decisions for patients with rare, treatment-resistant, late-stage or metastatic cancers.
As a nonprofit, Cure First relies on philanthropic support to keep the PARIS Test available to every patient who could benefit. Because the test is not currently covered by most insurance companies, individual and corporate donations, including matching gifts through employers, help sustain this access as demand continues to grow. To donate or learn more about the PARIS Test, visit www.cure-first.org.
About the PARIS Test
Offered through Cure First, the PARIS Test was developed over more than a decade, beginning with early research at Fred Hutch and later advanced by SEngine Precision Medicine. The platform combines advanced organoid models with ultra-precise, acoustic robotics to deliver tiny amounts of many drugs to a patient’s live cancer cells ex vivo, and quickly measures how an individual tumor responds. Custom-built software analyzes the results and produces a personalized ranking of drugs, from exceptional response to non-response. Doctors select drugs from the PARIS Test menu based also on the genomic features and clinical condition of each patient.
The PARIS Test is available in all 50 states from Cure First’s CLIA-certified lab in Bothell, Washington, and is optimized for all solid-tumor cancers.
About Cure First
Cure First is a Seattle-based nonprofit advancing functional precision medicine for patients with hard-to-treat cancers. Through stewardship of the Bothell, WA, laboratory and leadership in functional genomics and drug sensitivity testing, Cure First ensures patients and oncologists worldwide can access actionable insights that improve outcomes and extend lives.
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