Improved Cancer Treatments: Personally Tailored Therapies May Enhance Results
New and Improved: Personalized Cancer Therapy
It's no secret that precision medicine is making waves in the medical field, and cancer treatment is no exception. A breakthrough study could change the future of cancer therapy for treatment-resistant patients.
Precision medicine involves tailoring treatment methods to an individual's unique genetic makeup, environmental factors, and lifestyle habits. This unique approach is proving to be particularly effective in the fight against various forms of cancer.
Enter the "Investigation of Profile-Related Evidence Determining Individualized Cancer Therapy" (I-PREDICT) study. The findings of this groundbreaking study suggest that personalized combination therapy can lead to improved disease control and survival rates in patients with treatment-resistant cancers.
The research team, hailing from the University of California, San Diego, conducted a clinical trial involving 149 participants with metastatic, refractory cancer. Out of these participants, 73 (or 49 percent) were successfully matched with personalized combination therapies.
The researchers used tumor DNA sequencing to identify the specific mutations in each participant's tumors and collaborated with a team of specialists to determine the best treatment combinations.
Shaking things up, the study reports that half of the highly matched participants responded to the prescribed therapies, while only 22 percent of those with no matches or poor-quality ones did.
"Having 50 percent of patients with heavily pretreated disease responding when highly matched speaks to the importance of personalized precision medicine combination approaches," comments Dr. Razelle Kurzrock, the study's senior author.
83 participants received treatments based on their oncologists' advice and personal preferences, with a mix of gene product-targeted drugs, hormone therapies, immunotherapies, and chemotherapies. The rest of the participants received unmatched treatments.
Dr. Shumei Kato, one of the study's lead authors, states, "The percentage of patients matched was much higher than in most precision medicine studies because we implemented a team who instituted immediate review of genomic results, as well as navigators who helped patients and physicians access clinical trials and off-label FDA-approved drugs."
Despite the promising results, challenges remain in implementing this new approach. There are concerns regarding the safety of administering drug combinations that have yet to be studied together. However, the researchers suggest that close monitoring and reduced doses make the approach feasible and safe.
Looking ahead, more clinical studies are needed to fully test this method and confirm its viability. Of course, it's important to remember that this study focuses on one specific approach. No two tumors are the same, and continued research will help uncover even more effective personalized treatment strategies.
As always, researchers involved in these studies often receive funding from pharmaceutical and clinical research companies. In this particular study, some of the funding came from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Blueprint Medicines, Amgen, and Pfizer.
Science has shown that tailoring cancer treatment to an individual's specific genetic makeup, environmental factors, and lifestyle habits, known as precision medicine, can prove effective in the fight against various forms of cancer. The I-PREDICT study, a breakthrough in personalized cancer therapy, reports that half of the heavily pretreated patients who were successfully matched with personalized combination therapies responded to the prescribed treatments, while only 22 percent of those with no matches or poor-quality ones did, highlighting the importance of health-and-wellness approaches in patient care.
