Cancer screening has traditionally been guided by broad factors such as age, sex, family history, and certain lifestyle exposures. While these recommendations remain important, every individual has a different combination of factors that may influence their cancer risk. 

At PreOncology, we believe understanding those differences is an important first step toward a more individualized approach to cancer risk management and early detection. 

Your PreOncology experience begins with a referral from your Primary Care Provider (PCP), followed by completion of the registration process to become a PreOncology member. Once registered, you will begin your Stage Alpha Assessment, the first step in understanding your individual cancer risk. After completing your Stage Alpha Assessment, you will be able to schedule your initial consultation, where you will meet directly with a PreOncology nurse practitioner and genetic counselor, with your care overseen by a medical oncologist. Together, your PreOncology Care Team will review what we have learned through your assessment, answer your questions, help put the information into context, and discuss what it may mean for your ongoing cancer risk management and early detection. 

What Is the Stage Alpha Assessment? 

The Stage Alpha Assessment establishes the foundation for understanding your individual cancer risk. 

Rather than relying on a single test or risk factor, the assessment brings together multiple sources of information that can contribute to cancer risk. Two key components of this assessment are your Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) results and Precision Risk Assessment (PRA). 

Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is a detailed analysis of your DNA that helps us understand how your genetic information contributes to your cancer risk. At PreOncology, WGS is performed on a blood sample. 

The Precision Risk Assessment (PRA) is a detailed questionnaire that brings together information such as your personal medical history, family history, lifestyle, environmental exposures, and other factors that may influence cancer risk. 

Your WGS and PRA provide different but complementary information about your cancer risk. These findings are brought together through PreOncology’s Dynamic Risk Engine (DRE), which integrates the information to generate the final results of your Stage Alpha Assessment as individualized cancer risk estimates. These risk estimates do not tell us whether you will or will not develop cancer. Instead, they help provide a more complete picture of your individualized cancer risk.  

During your consultation, your PreOncology Care Team will review these results with you in greater detail and answer any questions you may have.  

Reviewing Your Stage Alpha Assessment Results  

Before your initial consultation, the PreOncology Care Team reviews the information as it becomes available from your Stage Alpha Assessment. 

But data alone never tells the entire story. 

Your medical history, family cancer history, lifestyle, and environmental exposures can all provide important context. Your initial consultation gives us an opportunity to confirm that information, identify anything that may be missing, and better understand the factors that are unique to you. 

Before your consultation, if the PreOncology Care Team identifies a finding from your WGS results or PRA— what we call a “signal”—that may require additional clinical review, it may be brought to the PreOncology Signal Board for collaborative review by the care team and medical specialists. 

What Can You Expect During Your Initial Consultation? 

Your initial consultation is intended to be a conversation—not simply a discussion of results. 

During the consultation, your genetic counselor will help you understand your whole genome sequencing results, answer questions about your findings, and provide insights into how your genetic information impacts your cancer risks. 

Your nurse practitioner will bring together your genetic results, PRA information, and DRE output to discuss in detail your personalized cancer risk profile, including the factors that may be contributing to your individual risk. 

Based on your individualized cancer risk profile, a surveillance protocol will be recommended for consideration. Depending on your risk profile, this may include recommendations for additional laboratory testing, imaging, or follow-up. We encourage you to discuss these recommendations with your PCP as you consider what approach is appropriate for you. 

What Happens After Your Initial Consultation? 

Your Stage Alpha Assessment and initial consultation are a starting point. 

Following your consultation, you will have access to your information through your PreOncology member portal, allowing you to revisit your results, personalized cancer risk profile, and surveillance recommendations. From there, the next step is deciding how you would like to use that information. 

Your PCP Is the Quarterback of Your Healthcare Team 

We think of your PCP as the quarterback of your healthcare team. 

Your PCP understands the broader picture of your health and continues to guide your routine preventive care and established population-based cancer screening. Those screening recommendations remain an important part of your overall healthcare. 

PreOncology does not replace that relationship. Instead, we provide an additional layer of specialized cancer risk information that can help you and your PCP have a more informed conversation about whether additional or more advanced surveillance may be appropriate. 

We encourage you to discuss your Stage Alpha Assessment and personalized cancer risk information with your PCP before deciding whether you would like to proceed with surveillance through PreOncology. 

The goal is collaboration between you, your PCP, and your PreOncology Care Team. 

The Beginning of Your PreOncology Journey 

Understanding cancer risk can feel complicated, particularly when genetics, family history, screening recommendations, and personal health information are considered together. 

You do not have to interpret that information on your own. 

Your Stage Alpha Assessment brings together important information about your individual cancer risk, while your initial consultation helps turn that information into understanding—what it means, what it does not mean, and how it may help inform thoughtful decisions about cancer risk management and early detection. 

And your risk is not static. 

Over time, your medical history may change, your family history may evolve, new clinical information may become available, and advances in science may change how we understand risk and surveillance. This is why PreOncology approaches cancer risk as something that can be evaluated over time rather than only once. 

Through continued collaboration between you, your PCP, and your PreOncology Care Team, that understanding can help guide thoughtful decisions about what comes next. 

Understanding your cancer risk is not about knowing exactly what the future holds. It is about using what we know today to bring greater clarity to your risk and help guide more informed decisions for the future.