Is this the right treatment for my cancer? Not cancer in general — mine.

If you or someone you love has cancer, there is a question that tends to sit at the back of your mind even when everything is going to plan. Is this the right treatment for my cancer? Not for cancer in general — for mine.

That question gets louder in certain moments. When you have been offered a treatment you are hesitant about and you want to know whether it is the only option or just the first one. When the options are running out or have already been tried. When your cancer is rare and there is not much research to go on. Or when you realise nobody has ever looked at your cancer in any real detail.

There is a reason that question is worth asking. More than 80% of patients make changes to their treatment plan after an Astron report. Here is why.

Treatment guidelines are built on what works for most people, and that is a good thing. But two people with the same diagnosis can have cancers that behave completely differently. Same drug, very different result. Guidelines are built for the average patient. You are not the average patient.

So two things have to happen. Your cancer has to be read properly, in detail, and then the right people have to look at what it says.

First, the reading. We look at your cancer at three levels. DNA is the instruction book your cancer is working from. RNA shows which of those instructions it is actually using, and protein shows what it is actually making. Standard testing rarely covers all three. A test that reads DNA alone can find a spelling mistake in the instruction book without telling you whether your cancer is even using that page.

All of it goes through our analysis engine, which compares your profile against more than 170,000 peer-reviewed published papers — far more than any one doctor could read in a lifetime — to surface the treatment options and clinical trials most relevant to your own case.

Then, the second half. Your analysis goes to Astron's tumour board: consultant cancer specialists who treat cancer at leading hospitals and publish their own research. Each focuses on particular types of cancer, and your case goes to the specialists whose expertise fits it. Each reads it independently and adds their own view. What comes out is not one doctor's opinion. It is a consensus.

A senior specialist reviews what the board found and signs the final opinion, then offers to get on a call with your own doctor to talk it through.

What comes back to you is written in sections you can actually read, with the strength of the evidence behind each finding marked clearly. The report also covers adjunctive therapies — options that sit alongside your standard treatment rather than replacing it. We include one only where the evidence behind it is strong enough to be worth your oncologist's time, and the added risk is low.

Which brings you back to where you started. An opinion built around your own cancer case rather than the average one, current with what the research says now, clinical trials relevant to your specific profile, and an answer to the question you came in with.

One thing to be clear about: we do not take over your care, and you do not change hospitals. Your own doctor stays in charge of every decision. We are here to give your team more to work with.

You do not need a referral to start, and you can speak to someone before you commit to anything. Find out more at astron.health.