Nagourney Cancer Institute

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Nagourney Cancer Institute At Nagourney Cancer Institute (formerly Rational Therapeutics), we believe that every cancer patient deserves the right treatment the first time, every time.

Your cancer is as unique as your fingerprint. Drugs that work for one patient may not work for another, even if they carry exactly the same diagnosis. We offer testing that measures how your cancer cells will respond to drugs BEFORE you receive them. This testing helps select the most effective and least toxic drug regimen for your cancer. Our founder and medical director, Dr. Robert Nagourney, has been internationally recognized as a pioneer in cancer research and personalized cancer treatment for over 20 years. He has worked 20+ years refining a process that examines the biology of your tumor to identify the most effective, least toxic treatment for YOU. Our patients have been shown to be twice as likely on average to respond to a cancer treatment when chosen in our laboratory compared with standard treatment protocols. With these results, you and your doctors are equipped with personalized information to make the most informed decision to treat YOUR cancer. Truly Personalized Cancer Care.

Can dogs detect cancer from a person’s breath? 🐾In a study of more than 3,200 participants, trained dogs were used to ev...
10/20/2026

Can dogs detect cancer from a person’s breath? 🐾

In a study of more than 3,200 participants, trained dogs were used to evaluate breath samples from patients with biopsy-proven cancers and healthy volunteers.

The reported results: 90.8% sensitivity, 91.3% specificity, and an ROC of 0.962.

For Dr. Robert Nagourney, the significance goes beyond a dog’s extraordinary sense of smell. 🔬

Cancer changes the way cells use nutrients and energy.

Those metabolic changes can produce volatile organic compounds that appear in exhaled breath - chemical signals sensitive enough for trained dogs to detect. 🧫

The findings add to a larger question in cancer research:

Could metabolism reveal cancer in ways that genetics alone cannot?

Dr. Nagourney connects these results to his group’s published work studying metabolic measures in breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and other cancers, and to the potential of mass spectrometry to identify cancer-associated metabolites. 🧪

Sometimes, what cancer is doing may tell us as much as what genes it carries. 🦠

Read Dr. Nagourney’s full blog on our website through the link in bio.

Pancreatic cancer can raise urgent questions - and not every answer is found in genetics alone. 🦠Two pancreatic cancer d...
10/16/2026

Pancreatic cancer can raise urgent questions - and not every answer is found in genetics alone. 🦠

Two pancreatic cancer diagnoses may look similar on paper, yet behave very differently in real life. That difference can matter when treatment decisions need to be made quickly.

Dr. Nagourney’s latest blog looks at why tumor behavior, treatment sensitivity, and timing still matter in pancreatic cancer care - especially when patients and families are searching for clearer next steps.

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, approved, novel, and investigational therapy options are evaluated in the lab to help inform the treatment conversation. 🔬

If you or someone you love is facing pancreatic cancer, the right question may be just as important as the next treatment.

Full blog is available on our website, link in the bio! 🔗

Have questions about your limited pancreatic cancer treatment options? Connect with the NCI team to learn what may be worth exploring next. 🩵

Four cancers. Fourteen years. And a life still being lived fully.When Dr. Robert Nagourney first met Tracey in 2012, she...
10/15/2026

Four cancers. Fourteen years. And a life still being lived fully.

When Dr. Robert Nagourney first met Tracey in 2012, she was found to have three distinct cancers: breast cancer, kidney cancer, and a lung carcinoid. Years later, breast cancer returned, and melanoma was also identified along the way. 💔

Her care changed as her cancer changed.

After hormonal therapies were exhausted, Dr. Nagourney returned to earlier testing of her cancer tissue and identified activity for a simple oral therapy. Treatment began in 2022, with an immediate response and virtually no side effects.

Today, at 89, Tracey continues to paint, exhibit her work, and live an active life. Her scans remain stable and her tumor markers normal. 🌸

She has not been declared cured, and her treatment may need to change in the future. But her story reflects something central to cancer care: the right treatment, at the right time, for the individual patient can matter enormously.

And somewhere in Dr. Nagourney’s office hangs one particularly meaningful piece of that story: Tracey’s painting of his 1955 Buick Special. 🚙

The full story blog is available on our website.

If you or someone you love is facing a complex cancer diagnosis, recurrence, or limited treatment options, consider connecting with Nagourney Cancer Institute to learn whether a more individualized approach may help inform the next treatment conversation. 🤍

What is tumor biology, and why does it matter in cancer treatment? 🤍A cancer diagnosis tells us what type of cancer is ...
10/08/2026

What is tumor biology, and why does it matter in cancer treatment? 🤍

A cancer diagnosis tells us what type of cancer is present. But it does not always tell us how that individual tumor will behave or how it may respond to treatment.

Two patients can share the same diagnosis and still have very different treatment responses.

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, we look beyond the label by evaluating how a patient’s cancer cells respond in the lab to approved, novel, and investigational therapy options. 🔬

That additional information can help patients and their oncology teams ask more informed questions about what may be worth considering next, particularly when cancer is advanced, treatment has stopped working, or options feel limited. 🧫

Because understanding the diagnosis is important. Understanding the cancer in front of you can add another layer to the conversation. 🤍

If you or someone you love is facing a difficult cancer treatment decision, consider connecting with NCI to learn whether this type of testing may be relevant. 🫂

10/07/2026

For Samantha Cincola, the impact of cancer care is measured in time. ⏳

Her father became a patient of Dr. Robert Nagourney in 1995 after being told he may have only three months to live. He went on to live for nearly 20 more years. 🫂

For Samantha, that meant something deeply personal: her children had the chance to know their grandfather, build memories with him, and have him become an important part of their lives. 🤍

That is what makes stories like this matter. They remind us why cancer care is about more than a diagnosis. It is about people, families, and the moments they are still able to share.

A heartfelt thank you to Samantha Cincola for sharing such a personal story and for speaking so openly about what Dr. Nagourney and NCI have meant to her family.✨

If you or someone you love is facing cancer or limited treatment options, consider connecting with Nagourney Cancer Institute to learn whether a consultation may help inform the next step.🩵

A late-stage cancer diagnosis can feel like the end of the road. It may not be the end of the questions. 😊Patients and f...
10/01/2026

A late-stage cancer diagnosis can feel like the end of the road. It may not be the end of the questions. 😊

Patients and families often want to know more than the name or stage of the cancer. 🥹

What is driving it?
What therapies might it still respond to?
Are there treatment options still worth exploring?

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, we evaluate a patient’s cancer cells in the lab against approved, novel, and investigational therapies to gather more information about potential treatment sensitivity and resistance.

For people facing advanced cancer, treatment resistance, or limited options, that information may help support a more informed conversation about what comes next. 🤍

Look beyond the diagnosis. Ask what your cancer may still be telling us. 🔬

If you or someone you love is navigating late-stage cancer, consider connecting with NCI to learn more! 🫂

When cancer treatment options begin to narrow, patients and families often find themselves asking a different kind of qu...
09/29/2026

When cancer treatment options begin to narrow, patients and families often find themselves asking a different kind of question:

What could help us make the next decision more informed?

A diagnosis tells us what the cancer is called. It does not always tell us how an individual cancer may respond to different therapies. 🤍

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, we evaluate a patient’s cancer cells in the lab against approved, novel, and investigational treatment options to gather additional information about potential sensitivity and resistance. 🔬

For patients facing advanced cancer, late-stage disease, or treatment that is no longer working, that information may help bring greater clarity to the next treatment conversation. 🤝

Your cancer isn’t average. The questions you ask about it shouldn’t be either.

If you or someone you love is facing limited cancer treatment options, consider speaking with the NCI team about whether this type of testing may be relevant to your case. 🫂

What does it mean to ask what your cancer is sensitive to?For patients and families, especially when cancer has progress...
09/25/2026

What does it mean to ask what your cancer is sensitive to?

For patients and families, especially when cancer has progressed or a treatment has stopped working, the next question is often not simply: “What treatments exist?”

It is: “Which treatments might this cancer actually respond to?” 🦠

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, cancer cells from a patient’s sample can be evaluated in the laboratory against approved, novel, and investigational therapy options. 🔬

The goal is to gather additional information about treatment sensitivity and resistance that may help inform the next discussion with the oncology team. 🤍

For patients and families dealing with advanced cancer, treatment resistance, or an unclear next step, consider speaking with the NCI team about further possibilities. 🫂

What is your pancreatic cancer actually sensitive to? 🤍When you or someone you love receives a pancreatic cancer diagnos...
09/21/2026

What is your pancreatic cancer actually sensitive to? 🤍

When you or someone you love receives a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, understanding the available treatments is only part of the conversation.

Another important question is: Which therapies might this particular cancer respond to? 🔬

Two patients with the same diagnosis may respond differently to the same treatment. And when pancreatic cancer is advanced or standard treatments stop working, that difference becomes especially important.

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, we study how a patient’s cancer cells respond to approved, novel, and investigational therapies in the lab, including drug combinations. 🧫

The goal is to identify potential treatment sensitivities and resistance, bringing more information into decisions made with your oncology team.

Because knowing what treatments are available is important. Understanding how your cancer may respond to them adds another layer of information.

If you or someone you love is facing pancreatic cancer or limited treatment options, consider a consultation with NCI to learn how our testing may help inform the next treatment conversation. 🫂

09/17/2026

Advanced, late-stage pancreatic cancer leaves patients and families facing some of the most difficult questions in cancer care.

What happens when standard treatments stop working? What options remain when the disease continues to progress?

For Dr. Robert Nagourney, these challenges are precisely why pancreatic cancer has become a major focus of his work.

At Nagourney Cancer Institute, we help learn how a patient’s cancer cells respond to different therapies in the lab, providing additional information that may help guide treatment decisions. 🧫

When treatment options are limited, understanding the individual cancer becomes even more important.

If you or someone you love is facing advanced pancreatic cancer, consider connecting with NCI to explore whether a consultation may help inform your next treatment conversation. 🤍

Address

750 E 29th Street
Long Beach, CA
90806

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+18005424357

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