Precision Medicine

Precision Medicine

From City of Hope City News Vol.28, No. 2, Winter 2017:

Steven T. Rosen M.D.

Chief Scientific Officer and Provost,  City of Hope, Duarte, California

The three factors comprising precision medicine:

1)      Discovering the genetic causes of diseases

2)      Understanding why individuals respond to different   therapies

3)      Translating this understanding into new diagnostic tests and therapies

In a major shift, cancer drugs go ‘tissue-agnostic’

This full article is available to AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science members). If you are a AAAS Member use your via AAAS ID and password to log in. Not a member? Click here to join. Abstract and figures are pasted below.

In a major shift, cancer drugs go ‘tissue-agnostic’

1.     Ken Garber*

1.     Chicago, Illinois

Science  16 Jun 2017:
Vol. 356, Issue 6343, pp. 1111-1112
DOI: 10.1126/science.356.6343.1111

Ken Garber

Chicago, Illinois

You are currently viewing the summary.

Summary

Since the beginnings of cancer chemotherapy in the 1940s, oncologists have treated patients with drugs based on the organ or tissue where their tumors originated. Colon cancer requires different drug regimens than lung, breast, or skin cancer. But in May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first time allowed the use of an existing approved drug, Keytruda, to treat any solid tumor bearing a specific genetic marker. Now, another drug, larotrectinib, looks likely to become the second approved tissue-agnostic drug by next year, and others are making their way through clinical trials. "It's a sign of the times," says Alice Shaw, director of thoracic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "The molecular biology of the tumor is really leading the way over the tissue of origin."

• ↵* Ken Garber is a science journalist in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Figures

A tumor in a child's leg

A tumor in a child's leg had grown so large (top) that an amputation was planned, but a drug targeting the cancer-causing TRK enzyme shrunk the mass enough (bottom) to allow surgical removal.

PHOTO: LEO MASCARENHAS/CHILDREN'S CENTER FOR CANCER AND BLOOD DISEASES AT CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES

One drug fits all

Science

Vol 356, Issue 6343
16 June 2017

This article is available to AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) members. If you are a AAAS Member use your via AAAS ID and password to log in. Not a member? Click here to join. Abstract only is pasted below.

Summary

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, which is based on modified immune cells, has lured doctors, companies, and patients alike, but many are hitting a frustrating roadblock: generating enough of these CAR-T cells, which remain experimental, to meet surging demand. For patients, getting the most anticipated new treatments is never easy. Clinical trials are tightly controlled and not everyone is eligible. But for this personalized approach, the difficulties are multiplied. Unlike a drug, each batch is designed for a specific patient. Because production involves genetic engineering and working with live cells, it is mostly done by hand, by highly trained technicians. The situation today is fluid, with shortages cropping up in some places and easing in others. Doctors, meanwhile, are grappling with how best to distribute the therapy among very sick patients in clinical trials.

Science

Vol 356, Issue 6343
16 June 2017

Cognitive Computing and the Future of Health Care

The cognitive power of IBM Watson has the potential to transform global personalized medicine.