Precision Medicine in Oncology®

Biomarkers play a key role in the optimization of treatments for patients with prostate cancer. According to Mark Stein, MD, they can even serve as clinical endpoints in trials.

Identifying biomarkers to determine who should receive chemotherapy, targeted agents, and immunotherapy is just one of several obstacles the prostate cancer community is currently facing.

In the old days, not too long ago, doctors’ offices were full of paper records, which filled shelf after shelf. This cumbersome form of keeping track of patients was effective in its own way, but with the rise of modern medicine and the power of computing, there is a need to move beyond.

A number of clinical trials are seeking to identify beneficial therapeutic outcomes in patients with prostate cancer who are resistant to androgen receptor–targeted agents.

An expert panel has issued a set of guidelines for patients with gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma, recommending that they be tested for HER2 status before initiation of targeted therapy.

The expression of PD-L1 has been at the forefront of biomarker development for PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, but there is much uncertainty surrounding its use and other biomarkers are needed.

Sarah B. Goldberg, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Medicine, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the use of PD-L1 as a biomarker in treating patients with lung cancer.

Recent research suggests that the presence of PD-L1–positive and CD8+ cells may be useful for predicting responses in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have been treated with durvalumab.

Individualizing frontline therapy for patients with non–small cell lung cancer based on preferences and clinical experience, as well as efficacy and safety data from pivotal trials, is an appropriate method for selecting EGFR-targeted agents.

Graham Mann, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, professor of Medicine, Westmead Clinical School and co-director of the Centre for Cancer Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research at the University of Sydney in Australia, discusses his findings from the Australian Melanoma Genome Project, which were presented at the 2016 Society for Melanoma Research (SMR) Congress.