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Integration of Wet and Dry Bench Processes Optimizes Targeted Next-generation Sequencing of Low-quality and Low-quantity Tumor Biopsies
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Impact of genomics on personalized cancer medicine

Carlos L Arteaga1, José Baselga

  • 1Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-6307, USA. carlos.arteaga@vanderbilt.edu

Clinical Cancer Research : an Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
|February 3, 2012
PubMed

Insights

New targeted cancer therapies show promise but require diagnostic tests to identify patients likely to respond. Current tools are lacking for many novel agents, hindering personalized treatment selection.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Genetics
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Advances in tumor genetics and drug development have yielded numerous targeted anticancer therapies.
  • Many targeted drugs are effective only in tumors with specific genotypes, detectable via diagnostic tests.
  • Somatic alterations in tumor DNA are key indicators for targeted therapy efficacy.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To highlight the need for clinical tools to predict patient response to targeted therapies.
  • To address the gap in identifying patients who will benefit from novel anticancer agents.
  • To discuss the challenge of predicting de novo resistance to emerging targeted therapies.

Main Methods:

  • Review of recent advances in targeted cancer therapy development.
  • Analysis of current diagnostic approaches for identifying tumor genotypes.
  • Examination of the limitations in predicting patient response to novel agents.

Main Results:

  • A growing number of targeted therapies are genotype-specific.
  • Diagnostic tests for somatic alterations are crucial for identifying responsive tumors.
  • A significant gap exists in clinical tools for the majority of targeted therapies in development.

Conclusions:

  • Personalized medicine in oncology relies heavily on predictive diagnostic tools.
  • Development of companion diagnostics is essential for the successful implementation of targeted therapies.
  • Further research is needed to create clinical assays for predicting response and resistance to novel anticancer drugs.

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