Cancer researchers create catalog of possible targets for new treatments
April 16, 2017
Hurdles to widespread implementation include the need for a multidisciplinary Sequencing Tumor Board to interpret the complex sequencing results, management of the necessary computational resources, and a process for dealing with incidental genetic findings revealed by the sequencing - such as a risk for hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes the body to absorb too much iron.
Achieving a four-week turnaround time for results is important because that's how long patients are usually required to wait for unsuccessful treatments to leave their systems before starting a clinical trial.
"Once some of the practical and technological hurdles are cleared, we envision an array of mutation and pathway-based trials for available targeted therapies, with eligibility based on molecular assessment," says senior investigator Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., director of MCTP, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and S.P. Hicks Professor of Pathology at the U-M Medical School. "Moreover, if patients are treated with matching targeted therapies and develop secondary resistance, it could also help reveal the mechanisms of resistance and inform future trials for combination therapies."
Chinnaiyan says the work was made possible only by collaboration and teamwork. U-M physicians Moshe Talpaz, M.D., Stephen Gruber, M.D., Ph.D., and Kenneth Pienta, M.D. played key roles in the clinical implementation of this exploratory protocol, he notes.
Researchers hope this type of sequencing will become more widely available over the next 5 to 10 years. Cancer patients are encouraged to speak to their doctors about clinical trial opportunities.
Source U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center