Precision Oncology

Abstract

Precision medicine broadly refers to both the science and practice of medicine that can be personalized to an individual patient level. The clinical applications of precision medicine have gradually and meaningfully followed related scientific and technological advances. While genetics, genomics and molecular diagnostics comprise some of the most important aspects of precision medicine, many other tools, such as imaging and analytics, are also employed. The intent of these high-resolution diagnostics is to improve the selection of optimal therapies for patients, which is a thesis that has already seen promise, most notably in oncology. The rapid pace of biological discovery alongside advances in analytics and technology suggest a future with increasing clinical applications of precision medicine across many disease areas, especially as important diagnostics continue to see reductions in cost.

Increasing patient participation in oncology clinical trials

“…), pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) results, and observed toxicities, which can be used to help precisely locate or identify patients who would most likely benefit from a treatment, especially a targeted therapy (e.g., cancer patients carrying certain somatic mutations), or experience a harm if a particular treatment or its high dose is given to patients with certain characteristics. 56 , 57 In addition, some RWD sources (e.g., electronic health records) may contain a variety of alternative treatment strategies that can be considered as a standard of care to which the new therapy can be compared. Such a comparison results in treatment effectiveness because it accommodates what is available in medical practice, which represents the best interest of and hence can be more attractive to cancer patients.…”

“…Use of digital healthcare technologies (e.g., telehealth, telemedicine, mobile health, health information technologies, and wearable devices) in trial conduct provides a great opportunity to make clinical research more inclusive, accessible, and efficient. 57 , 58 Current public health challenges posed by the COVID‐19 pandemic have increased the use of telemedicine in everyday oncology practice. Its implementation and wider uptake in the conduct of cancer trials can improve patient participation.…”

“…Some RWD may contain multiomics data (e.g., genomics, proteomics, metaboliomics, etc. ), pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) results, and observed toxicities, which can be used to help precisely locate or identify patients who would most likely benefit from a treatment, especially a targeted therapy (e.g., cancer patients carrying certain somatic mutations), or experience a harm if a particular treatment or its high dose is given to patients with certain characteristics 56,57 . In addition, some RWD sources (e.g., electronic health records) may contain a variety of alternative treatment strategies that can be considered as a standard of care to which the new therapy can be compared.…”