Precision Medicine in Oncology®

Vassiliki A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, professor of medicine, Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the implications of the NILE trial in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Cell-free DNA-based detection of microsatellite instability status was found to be highly concordant with tissue-based MSI testing.

Although research findings have established many applications for genetic information in breast cancer, not enough patients are being tested for the risk of germline mutations and new strategies are needed to broaden the clinical application of genomic advancements.

Sometimes referred to as massively parallel sequencing, next-generation sequencing evaluates millions of DNA sequences simultaneously, representing a true revolution compared with traditional, labor-intensive methods in which far less DNA could be sequenced at once.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended approval of larotrectinib for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with solid tumors that have an NTRK gene fusion without a known acquired resistance mutation, are metastatic or where surgical resection is likely to result in severe morbidity, and have no satisfactory alternative treatments or that have progressed following treatment.

Mohammad Razaq, MD, discusses how the detection of driver mutations has changed the way treatment is approached in advanced non–small cell lung cancer.