Caris Life Sciences, a leading innovator in molecular science focused on fulfilling the promise of precision medicine, announced that Piedmont Cancer has joined Caris' Precision Oncology Alliance as its 22^nd member and will work with other leading cancer centers to develop standards of care and best practices for the use of tumor profiling, making cancer treatment more precise and effective.

"We are pleased to welcome our colleagues at Piedmont Cancer to the Alliance. Their extensive footprint across Georgia and commitment to improving cancer treatment within each of the communities they serve makes Piedmont a valuable and productive member of our Alliance," said John Marshall, M.D., Director of the Otto J. Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancer at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and Chairman of the POA Executive Committee.

The POA, which now consists of 22 academic, hospital and community-based cancer institutions including five NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, is broadening patient access to precision medicine tools and establishing evidence-based standards for tumor profiling and molecular testing in oncology. The POA utilizes Caris Molecular Intelligence^®, Caris' suite of comprehensive genomic and proteomic tumor profiling services, to enable the practice of precision medicine by identifying therapy options and clinical trial opportunities based on the unique molecular characteristics of a patient's tumor. Piedmont Cancer will also actively participate in collecting molecular data and longitudinally tracking outcomes data for those patients that have had their tumors profiled.

"Advancing molecular profiling and precision medicine to identify effective treatments to ultimately improve patient care and survival for each of our cancer patients is an important objective of Piedmont Cancer," said Erin Dunbar, M.D., Medical Director at the Piedmont Brain Tumor Center. "Caris Life Sciences has built a distinguished group of institutions to serve cancer patients through the Precision Oncology Alliance, and we look forward to working with Caris and the other POA members to further advance molecular profiling and precision medicine to make it a standard of care in cancer treatment."

Caris Molecular Intelligence assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular profile to guide more precise and individualized treatment decisions. Based on the unique molecular characteristics of an individual patient's cancer, the results help inform treatment decisions by identifying therapies that have the potential to be most effective and to rule out those that are less likely to work.