DNA-Guided Precision Medicine for Cancer: A Case of Irrational Exuberance?

Abstract

Summary: Precision treatment with targeted cancer drugs requires the selection of patients who are most likely to benefit from a given therapy. We argue here that the use of a combination of both DNA and transcriptome analyses will significantly improve drug response prediction. Cancer Discov; 6(2); 130–2. ©2016 AACR.

Somatic mutations in salivary duct carcinoma and potential therapeutic targets

“…It is increasingly recognized that the genotype of the tumor alone is not a reliable predictor of response to targeted therapies and transcriptomic profiling may also be useful [36]. Our approach of using formalin fixed paraffin Increased autophosphorylation of PDGFRA [7] Responsiveness to Imatinib and Crenolanib in melanoma [7] Imatinib, Crenolanib [7] multi-institutional studies.…”

Precision Oncology: The Road Ahead

“…With cancer primarily being a genetic disease, precision oncology has largely focused on the determination of genetic biomarkers and multiple clinical trials to test whether targeting these genetic alterations in cancer can prolong survival. Remarkable success in applying genomics-driven cancer therapy has been noted [2], yet, serious criticism remains regarding this genomics-focused precision oncology concept, including scientific, social, ethical and economical aspects [2–5]. In this review, we focus on the biological rationale for precision oncology and outline current efforts and achievements of implementing precision oncology in the clinic, while highlighting promising routes to overcome the limitations of genomic-focused approaches.…”

Implementing Genome-Driven Oncology

“…The emerging field of precision medicine is no different, and some authoritative voices have raised appropriate concerns (Tannock and Hickman, 2016; Voest and Bernards, 2016). First, it has been pointed out that despite the immense complexity of the task at hand, there is a lack of much-needed collaboration among cancer institutions, and even in those situations in which tumor sequencing takes place, there is a low rate of patient participation in genomically matched trials.…”