Precision Medicine in Oncology

The WISDOM study—Women Informed to Screen Depending On Measures of risk—was launched to test a personalized approach to screening compared to annual mammograms. Funmi Olopade, MD, FACP, is a professor of Medicine and Human Genetics and founding director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and Global Health at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and a co-investigator of WISDOM. She discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic actually helped increase participation in the WISDOM study and what it means for future trials.

An analysis of the latest research finds a robust approach to understanding particular prostate cancers remains necessary to finding optimal treatment.

This new study concluded that the breast cancer space needs more data to evaluate if there is a place for tissue-agnostic treatments for these patients.

New modeling could help explain why some patients develop resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Patients traveling for cancer treatment often incur financial burdens. The members of the Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers should play a role in mitigating housing-associated costs for patients during cancer treatment.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was used to predict response of high-grade extrauterine serous carcinoma (HGSC) to adjuvant platinum chemotherapy.

In a recent paper, researchers outlined the utility of minimal residual disease (MRD) among patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and how its monitoring at specific timepoints has proven useful for stratifying patients and helping to ensure appropriate treatment decisionsMRD

Unlike the success seen in other cancer types, biomarker-driven treatment advances in gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) have been hindered by its genomic heterogeneity. A significant proportion of patients also develop resistant subclones through selective pressure, resulting in disease progression.

In May, results showed that cemiplimab (Libtayo, Regeneron/Sanofi) produced significant benefits: a 31% reduction in the risk of death and a 25% reduction in the risk of disease progression.

Patients with EGFR Exon20 insertion+ non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) make up approximately 1% to 2% of patients with NSCLC and have lacked treatment options.

According to researchers, new findings may have important implications for expanding the use of measurable residual disease (MRD) in multiple myeloma.

Study authors found that knowing a patient’s minimal residual disease status can help pinpoint the right multiple myeloma therapy to improve overall and progression-free survival.

A review looks at techniques to monitor minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with multiple myeloma (MM).

The study, using a BCR/ABL1 assay, found that the novel method is able to detect minimal residual disease (MRD) in a larger range of patients compared with quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction, the method currently used to detect MRD.

The genomic alterations in prostate cancer were detected from tissue biopsies of primary tumors and metastatic sites as well as from liquid biopsies of circulating tumor DNA, the latter of which has emerged as an increasingly popular method for genomic analyses across various types of cancer.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a noninvasive way to identify mutations that may impact treatment decisions, according to a study of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

A meta-analysis showed adding trastuzumab to chemotherapy for the treatment of early-stage, HER2-positive breast cancer could cut deaths worldwide; a researcher discusses the promise of enfortumab vedotin for advanced urothelial cancers; more research is needed in rare genomic alterations in subsets of colorectal cancer (CRC).

Using next-generation sequencing (NGS) in clinical workflows may help address disparities in uterine cancer, which has a higher mortality for Black women.

The analysis included 64 cost-effectiveness analysis scenarios across more than 30 studies between 2009 and 2019, approximately half (53%) of which determined precision diagnostic testing to be cost-effective.

Researchers were able to use a next-generation sequencing assay to not only monitor minimal residual disease (MRD), but also to confirm diagnosis of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, which can present as more benign conditions early on.

Understanding of precision oncology has grown among patients, according to the researchers, who explained that in 2012, less than 50% of surveyed patients knew what “precision oncology” meant.