Personalized Treatment Prolongs Survival For Advanced Cancer Patients

New research findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting serve to bolster the recent focus on personalized cancer treatments. At the Association's 100th annual meeting, several research studies were cited that they collectively point towards the advantages of targeted treatments that customize an individual's treatment based on specific tumor characteristics.

In one study, a team of Arizona researchers tried to identify specific molecular targets in patients who had previous been unresponsive to an average of 5 therapies. The 66 total participants had been diagnosed with a variety of different cancers. Based on well-known cancer targets, the team was able to identify a viable cancer trait to target in 98 percent of all patients.

Treatments that were then tailored to attack these unique traits resulted in a cancer survival rate of at least 15 months for 40 percent of all patients. This percentage is double the expected 15-month survival rate among the general population.

In another study, Italian researchers concluded that colorectal cancer patients with specific genetic mutations would be unresponsive to two common antibodies used to treat the illness (Erbitux and Vectibix). As such, differing treatments would be necessary to treat this subsection of patients.

These two studies, along with others presented at the Association conference, are helping to advance the idea that patients should not be treated based on type of cancer alone. Indeed, within each type of cancer, distinct tumor traits allow doctors to further tailor treatment to a specific patient's needs.

Though molecular profiling of cancer has the potential to better predict treatment success in all types of cancer, experts are particularly optimistic about the tactic's effectiveness on breast cancer. Presently, a number of potential treatment regiments are available, but prescribed medications are typically based on large clinical trials that feature hundreds of women. Because various important traits of the cancer have already been identified, a more customized treatment approach is expected to improve the individual results of treatment immensely.

Sources: Forbes and ScienceDaily

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