Precision Medicine in Oncology®

The oncology we all learned over the past three decades will soon be a thing of the past, making way for therapy decisions based on what molecular switches should be turned on and off, and of equal importance, in what sequence.

Fabrice Andre, MD, PhD, Research Director, Head of INSERM Unit U981, Institut National des Sciences et de la Recherche Médicale, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France, discusses upcoming research in metastatic breast cancer.

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD, Director, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses targeted therapies and mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Recently reported data demonstrate that the presence of a specific mutation in PDGFRA predicts for the lack of activity for the imatinib in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

Two novel, oral drugs that target the B-Cell receptor signal transduction pathway could significantly change the way chronic lymphocytic leukemia is treated.

Emanuel "Chip" Petricoin III, PhD, from George Mason University, discusses the inability of DNA and RNA profiling to predict response to treatment with targeted therapies.

Bruce D. Cheson, MD, from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the prospect of using antibody drug conjugates in non-Hodgkin lymphomas, including follicular lymphoma.

Working in the laboratory and the clinic, Shaji K. Kumar, MD, has made a discovery: that there aren't enough hours in a day.

Ron Bose, MD, PhD, from the Siteman Cancer Center, discusses the prevalence of HER2 gene mutations in patients diagnosed with breast cancer.

Despite all we have learned about the importance of sensitizing EGFR mutations in defining the management of advanced NSCLC, our education regarding the relevance of this molecular target in optimizing clinical outcomes continues.

Benjamin W. Purow, MD, a researcher whose focus is on glioblastomas, discusses the Notch pathway and the development of Notch-targeted anticancer agents.

Although the presence of an EGFR mutation is a predictive marker for response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the mutation is not a prognostic factor.

Notch-targeted agents that were initially intended for the treatment of Alzheimer disease are now being examined for their possible anticancer activity.