Genome variation and personalized cancer medicine

Genomic variation, through effects on gene structure and expression, plays an important role in understanding disease predisposition, biology and clinical response to therapy. Transforming this knowledge into clinically relevant information that tailors interventions to an individual's specific genetic, physical, social and environmental profile is challenging. To illustrate how research initiatives at preclinical phases of development are attempting to address clinically important issues in oncology, six clinical problems related to cancers of the colon, prostate, breast, pancreas and brain (medulloblastoma) as well as metastatic disease of different origins are described. A unifying theme across applications is that healthy individuals previously indistinguishable in regards to cancer risk and patients with cancer previously categorized as similar with regard to prognosis or drug response are being stratified into more refined subgroups with different clinical profiles. Effective matching of a broad range of tests with more tailored strategies for prevention and/or treatment will require well-designed clinical studies to evaluate benefits and costs.