Functional Precision Medicine: How Cancer Drugs Are Tested Before Treatment | Jim Foote
Cancer care still forces patients and doctors to guess! Learn how functional precision medicine is replacing that uncertainty by testing cancer drugs before treatment even begins.
In this episode of An Hour of Innovation podcast, host Vit Lyoshin speaks with Jim Foote, co-founder and CEO of First Ascent Biomedical, an innovator who is challenging one of the most uncomfortable truths in modern medicine: many cancer treatments are chosen without knowing if they will actually work.
First Ascent Biomedical is a company focused on transforming personalized cancer treatment through functional precision medicine and data-driven decision support.
In this conversation, they explore how functional precision medicine differs from traditional precision medicine and why testing drugs on patients’ live tumor cells changes everything. Jim explains how AI, robotics, and large-scale drug testing help doctors move from trial-and-error to a true test-and-treat approach. The discussion also covers the risks of ineffective or harmful treatments, the economic cost of cancer care, and what must change for this model to become part of standard oncology practice.
Jim Foote is a former technology executive turned healthcare innovator whose work is deeply shaped by personal loss and firsthand experience with cancer care. He is best known for advancing functional precision medicine by combining genomics, live-cell drug testing, and AI-driven analysis to guide treatment decisions. His perspective matters because it connects real clinical outcomes with the technology needed to give doctors and patients clearer, faster, and more humane options.
Takeaways
* Cancer treatment still relies heavily on trial-and-error, even with modern medical technology.
* Two biologically different patients often receive the same cancer treatment based on population averages.
* Precision medicine based on DNA and RNA sequencing still cannot confirm if a drug will work before it’s given.
* Functional precision medicine tests drugs directly on a patient’s live tumor cells before treatment begins.
* Some FDA-approved cancer drugs can be completely ineffective or even make a patient’s cancer worse.
* Testing drugs outside the body can prevent patients from being exposed to harmful or useless treatments.
* AI and robotics enable hundreds of drug tests to be completed in days instead of weeks or months.
* In a published study, 83% of refractory cancer patients did better when treatment was guided by this approach.
* Knowing which drugs won’t work is just as important as knowing which ones will.
* Personalized, test-and-treat cancer care has the potential to improve outcomes while reducing overall healthcare costs.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:46 The Core Problem in Modern Cancer Care
04:16 Functional Precision Medicine Explained
06:42 How AI, Robotics, and Data Are Changing Cancer Treatment
10:01 How Cancer Drugs Are Tested Before Treatment
13:20 Personalized, Patient-Centric Cancer Care
18:22 Cost, Access, and the Economics of Cancer Treatment
22:19 The Future of Cancer Care and Patient Empowerment
25:21 Real Patient Outcomes and Success Stories
26:50 Why Functional Precision Medicine Is the Future
31:18 Predicting, Detecting, and Preventing Cancer Earlier
34:27 Where to Learn More About Functional Precision Medicine
36:12 Transforming Healthcare Beyond Trial-and-Error
37:27 Regulations, FDA Pathways, and Scaling Innovation
40:09 Why Cancer Is Affecting Younger Patients
41:17 Innovation Q&A
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Connect with Jim
* Website: https://firstascentbiomedical.com/
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-foote/
* TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqLCgNxUhVc
Connect with Vit
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vit-lyoshin/
X: https://x.com/vitlyoshin
Website: https://vitlyoshin.com
Podcast: https://www.anhourofinnovation.com/
