Precision Medicine in Oncology®

Homologous recombination, one of the major mechanisms of defective DNA repair, has emerged as a bona fide therapeutic target, yet its optimal use as a biomarker for patient selection remains a clouded scientific question.

The European Commission has approved entrectinib for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients ≥12 years of age with solid tumors that harbor an NTRK fusion, as well as for the treatment of adult patients with ROS1-positive, advanced non—small cell lung cancer not previously treated with ROS1 inhibitors.

Genetic testing is more important now than ever before, as biomarker-driven cancer treatments continue to receive approval across many tumor types.

The coronavirus disease 2019 has disrupted the global delivery of coordinated cancer care, resulting in declines in routine screening and referrals that could lead to thousands of excess deaths due to delayed diagnoses, experts warn.

A lower-risk TP53 mutation has been linked with a specific kind of Li Fraumeni Syndrome which predisposes individuals to a wide range of cancers, and this newly described variant of p53 is most commonly found in the Ashkenazi Jewish population.

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to BDTX-189 for use in adult patients with solid tumors harboring an allosteric HER2 mutation or an EGFR or HER2 exon 20 insertion mutation who had progressed on previous treatment and have no acceptable options available.

A new collaboration between the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Association of Community Cancer Centers aims to encourage the enrollment of more racially and ethnically diverse patients with cancer onto clinical trials.

Clinical data shows that the TRK inhibitors entrectinib and larotrectinib induce high response rates with favorable toxicity profiles and central nervous system penetration, and are a viable treatment option for patients with advanced TRK fusion-positive cancers.

A 73-gene proliferative transcriptomic signature was found to better predict overall survival outcomes and potentially be used to personalize treatment in patients with uterine serous carcinoma.

Gaël Roué, PhD, senior scientist at Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, discusses the next steps with the investigational BTK inhibitor TG-1701 in mantle cell lymphoma.

The optimal sequence of therapies for patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer must be an individualized one, and should be dependent on the presence and/or level of central nervous system disease.

The investigational TKI pyrotinib demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity and a manageable toxicity profile in patients with heavily pretreated HER2-mutant non–small cell lung cancer, as well as other advanced solid tumors harboring activating HER2 alterations.

Molecularly targeted therapies showed practice-changing results for patients with biomarker-driven lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancers in phase 3 randomized clinical trial findings.

In our exclusive interview, Dr. Cho and Dr. Ghobrial discuss the inspiration for the MMRF CureCloud, how it advances precision medicine, and the long-term goals of the study for patients and physicians alike.

John L. Marshall, MD, discusses the importance of molecular testing in gastrointestinal cancers.

Nathan Pennell, MD, PhD, discusses challenges with next-generation sequencing in lung cancer.

Balazs Halmos, MD, MS, discusses the importance of identifying biomarkers in advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

Markus Müschen, MD, PhD, has been named the inaugural Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.

The growing use of genomic profiling technologies will help promote the development of anticancer therapies based on molecular features of a tumor rather than the body site of origin.

Precision medicine should be seen as being synergistic―or at a minimum additive―to population medicine.

Marwan G. Fakih, MD, discusses the June 2020 FDA approval of pembrolizumab for use in select patients with unresectable or metastatic solid tumors that are tumor mutational burden–high provides a potentially life-saving option to those who have exhausted all other available therapies.

Nathan A. Pennell, MD, PhD, discusses the significance of findings from the DESTINY-Lung01 trial in non–small cell lung cancer.

Huma Q. Rana, MD, MPH, discusses germline genetic testing in men with advanced prostate cancer.

Plasma-based next-generation sequencing continues to offer a minimally invasive, highly specific modality to identify patients with actionable alterations in non–small cell lung cancer.

Three main survivin isoforms demonstrated the ability to translocate to the surface of plasma membrane in multiple cell types, suggesting a targetable role as a molecular biomarker.