This project aims to gather the necessary scientific and regulatory information to start a clinical trial that tests a new method—called phosphoproteomics—for helping doctors make better treatment decisions for rare or advanced cancer patients. Right now, most decisions are only based on analyzing the DNA of tumors. While this can be helpful, it does not always give a complete picture. This is because many problems in cancer are actually caused by faulty proteins and the biological processes they control—not just by changes in the DNA. Unfortunately, current tests do not measure these faulty protein activities directly. Phosphoproteomics is a new technology that can measure these activities by looking at how proteins are modified (phosphorylated) or how much of a protein is present in cancer cells. We call this PhosDx because it may reveal important behaviors of a tumor, helping doctors understand how it functions and which treatments might work best. 
The project goal is to accredit, optimize, and validate the PhosDx workflow for clinical use and will do the groundwork to test if PhosDx could become a suitable diagnostic tool in precision oncology. Within a time frame of 2-4 years, the goal is to introduce PhosDx as a new diagnostic tool that provides further or more refined treatment options for patients suffering from rare or advanced cancers.