Precision Medicine in Oncology®

Sofia D. Merajver, MD, PhD, discusses the importance of germline testing in patients with breast and ovarian cancer along with how this testing is being used to personalize treatment.

Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, discusses the revolution of genetic testing and how it has led to more accurate and widespread assays for patients with cancer.

Caroline Farrington, PhD, shares her insight as both a researcher and a cancer survivor on the importance of patient advocacy, as well as the proper resources to aid patients through a cancer diagnosis.

John M. Carethers, MD, MACP, discusses recent developments in multi-gene panel testing.

Timothy Yap, MBBS, PhD, FRCP, discusses the rationale for the ongoing phase 1b/2 SEASTAR trial in advanced solid tumors.

In our exclusive interview, Vivek Subbiah, MD, discusses the FDA approval of pembrolizumab in tumor mutational burden–high solid tumors, shares the “transformative importance” of the regulatory decision, and speaks to the controversy surrounding the approval.

Mobocertinib elicited a 43% objective response rate and an 86% disease control rate in select patients with non–small cell lung cancer who have EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.

Elena M. Stoffel, MD, MPH, discusses the importance of genetic testing in detecting Lynch syndrome and other hereditary syndromes associated with risk of colorectal cancer and other diseases.

Andre Goy, MD, MS, discusses how matching the right treatment with the right patient resides at the heart of precision medicine, but with continued interest in pursuing the molecular milieu of cancers, precision medicine has the potential to better inform pre- and post-cancer interventions as well.

Efforts to leverage targeted therapy and immunotherapy, which have been approved modalities in advanced non–small cell lung cancer, are leading to improved survival in patients with advanced and earlier-stage disease.

Andre Goy, MD, MS, discusses updates in precision medicine. 

Over the past decade in gastrointestinal cancer treatment, the acknowledgement that cancer is heterogeneous and likely polyclonal has prompted a shift from gene testing for some patients, to many patients.

Benjamin P. Levy, MD, discusses the disease-free survival benefit with adjuvant osimertinib in the phase 3 ADAURA trial.

Natalie I. U. Vokes, MD, discusses investigative biomarkers of response to checkpoint inhibitors in the field of oncology.

Implementing population-based BRCA1/2 testing is not only cost-effective in high- and upper middle–income countries but could also prevent tens of thousands of breast and ovarian cancer cases compared with the current clinical strategy, which recommends testing only for high-risk women.

Dual inhibition of both VEGFR and EGFR with the combination of apatinib and gefitinib in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancer demonstrated superior progression-free survival.

Entrectinib demonstrated durable intracranial activity in a small subset of patients with NTRK fusion–positive solid tumors and baseline central nervous system metastases.

Kartik Konduri, MD, discussed current treatment options that are available for patients with ALK, ROS1, and RET–positive NSCLC, as well as promising agents in the pipeline.

In our exclusive interview, Dr. Giri and Dr. Gomella discuss the rationale to create the first multidisciplinary, consensus-driven framework for prostate cancer genetic testing, the importance of having a multidisciplinary team weigh in on the recommendations, and key aspects of the guidelines that could have clinical implications for men in this space.

The FDA has approved the Oncomine Dx Target Test as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with RET fusion–positive non¬–small lung cancer who are candidates to receive the recently approved targeted therapy pralsetinib.

PARP inhibitors have fundamentally changed our therapeutic algorithms in ovarian cancer, even as their use continues to evolve.

Technological advancements are rapidly expanding the potential uses for blood-based liquid biopsies, but broad clinical adoption in cancer care hinges on improving the knowledge base of practicing oncologists and gathering prospective data to validate assays.

Manish R. Patel, DO, discusses the safety profile of entrectinib in NTRK fusion–positive solid tumors.

Nathan Pennell, MD, PhD, discusses the evolution of targeted therapies in the field of non–small cell lung cancer.

Shubham Pant, MD, discusses targeting KRAS mutations in advanced or metastatic solid tumors.