The National Cancer Institute’s announced that
it will soon begin a nationwide trial to test treatments based on the
genetic mutations in patients’ tumors, rather than on where the tumors
occur in the body, highlights a profound shift taking place in the
development of cancer drugs.
Researchers increasingly are
using DNA sequencing, which has become far faster and cheaper over
time, to identify molecular abnormalities in cancers. That technology is
allowing them to develop drugs they hope will prove more effective in
specific sets of patients and to design clinical trials that get the
most promising drugs to market more quickly.
“We are truly in a
paradigm change,” James H. Doroshow, director of the division of cancer
treatment and diagnosis at the NCI, said in announcing the initiative
Monday. He called the project “the largest and most rigorous precision
oncology trial that’s ever been attempted.”
The NCI project announced Monday comes amid a push by the Obama
administration to promote “precision medicine.” Beginning July 1, the
institute will begin screening several thousand patients at 2,400 sites
around the country, from large academic hospitals to community medical
facilities. Those who meet certain criteria will be sorted into nearly
two dozen treatment arms of 30 to 35 patients each, based on the genetic
mutations of their cancers.
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