February 2013, Vol 2, No 1

Resistance to Targeted Molecular Therapies in NSCLC

Over the past decade, there has been enormous progress in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in particular among patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Approximately 60% of these patients’ tumors will be oncogene addicted.1 Those with mutated EGFR and ALK rearrangements can be treated with [ Read More ]

Melissa L. Johnson, MD

Next-Generation Sequencing:

An Interview with Michael J. Pellini, MD, of Foundation Medicine

As the molecular drivers of cancer are better understood and targeted therapies are developed against those drivers, there is a growing need to perform comprehensive molecular analysis of tumors to determine the optimal treatment strategy for each patient. To this end, Foundation Medicine was founded in April 2010 by leaders [ Read More ]

Michael Pellini, MD

The Drawn Out Process of the Medical Lawsuit

She was one of the most highly sought radiologists in her hospital, a doctor with the uncanny ability to divine the source of maladies from the shadows of black and white X-ray films. But one afternoon my colleague revealed that she had been named in a lawsuit, accused of overlooking [ Read More ]

Pauline W. Chen, MD

Personalized Medicine Highlights From ASH 2012

Hematologic oncology is a fertile field for exploration of new targets for drug therapy. Below are summaries of presentations from the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) on some new targeted therapies for hematologic malignancies currently in phase 2 testing. Quizartinib: FLT3 Inhibitor in AML Quizartinib, [ Read More ]

Phoebe Starr

The Supportive Face of the FDA in the Advancement of Personalized Medicine

In a presentation at the 2011 World Health Care Congress, Vicki Seyfert-Margolis, PhD, the FDA’s Senior Advisor for Science Innovation and Policy, delivered information that demonstrated how the medical sector of healthcare has no exclusive claim to creativity in methods for facilitating the success of personalized medicine. Her findings underscore [ Read More ]

Robert E. Henry

Applying Personalized Medicine in the Overall Healthcare Environment

Dear Reader, Welcome to the second year of publication of Personalized Medicine in Oncology (PMO)! We launched this journal with the goal of providing the practicing oncologist with a translational guide to personalized medicine’s research advances and system improvements that bring targeted treatment into practice, thereby transforming personalized medicine from [ Read More ]

Lyudmila Bazhenova, MD

Progress in Personalized Approaches to Colorectal Cancer

Advances in the understanding of the molecular basis of colorectal cancer were featured at a pre-meeting Press Cast for the 10th Annual GI Cancers Symposium held January 24-26, 2013. Three separate presentations focused on: a new molecular classification system for colorectal cancer; gene expression profiling of circulating tumor cells as [ Read More ]

Alice Goodman

In Colon Cancer, Genomic Classifiers Aid in Prognosis

Genomic classifiers – in particular, ColoPrint and MSI-Print, and best when combined – can identify high-risk subsets among surgically resected stage II and stage III colon cancer patients, MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers reported at the 2013 GI Cancers Symposium. “The combination of ColoPrint and MSI-Print improves the prognostic accuracy [ Read More ]

Caroline Helwick

Mayo Clinic Researchers Propose Screening Algorithm for HER2 in Esophageal Cancer

The preferred screening test for HER2 status in surgical esophageal adenocarcinoma specimens is immunohistochemistry (IHC), with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) restricted to cases with an indeterminate (2+) IHC score, according to investigators from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, who proposed a testing algorithm at the 2013 GI Cancers Symposium. [ Read More ]

Women With Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Highly Likely to Carry BRCA1 Gene

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) was strongly associated with BRCA1 status, but not with BRCA2 status, in a large study of medically insured women. The study showed that the number of patients with BRCA mutations with a TNBC profile is statistically significant. The authors of this poster, presented at the 2012 [ Read More ]

Phoebe Starr

Predicting Risk of Significant Side Effects Made Possible by OnPART

OnPART can predict 6 common side effects of dose-dense doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide and paclitaxel chemotherapy (ACT) with a high degree of accuracy in patients with breast cancer, according to a study presented at a poster session at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The 78 breast cancer patients were [ Read More ]

Alice Goodman

Molecular Subtyping Reclassifies Early Breast Cancer in a Proportion of Patients

Molecular subtyping of early breast cancers using MammaPrint and BluePrint allows precise and accurate prediction of the molecular phenotype of the disease, which has the potential to guide selection of personalized therapy if the tests are used prospectively. A retrospective study of 208 tumor samples found that molecular subtyping with [ Read More ]

Phoebe Starr