You will probably hear a lot about precision cancer medicine in the future. But what is it and how is it used?
The purpose of precision cancer medicine is to define the genetic (or genomic) alterations inside the cancers DNA that drives that specific cancer to grow and spread. Cancer used to be diagnosed by pathologists using a visual inspection under a microscope and then all patients got the same treatment. Today we don’t use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to treatment. The same type of cancer in one patient will behave and respond to treatment differently. Researchers are exploring why these disease behaviors are different and opened the doors for a more personalized approach to cancer treatment.
Just like you and I, not all cancer cells are alike. Each has their own characteristics and behaviors based on our genetic code and DNA sequences. Cancer cells may be different from one another based on what genes have replicated poorly, or mutated. Precision medicine utilizes molecular diagnostic testing (a term used to describe a set of laboratory tests that are analyzed with analytical tools) to identify the abnormalities that drive the cancer in the human genetic code. This kind of molecular testing is usually performed on a sample of abnormal tissue obtained from a biopsy or surgical removal of tissue.
After a genetic abnormality is identified precision medicine helps to determine which treatment, or targeted therapy, can be given to attack that specific genetic code mutation or other cancer-related change in the DNA programming of the cancer cells. Essentially molecular testing allows the physician to identify the exact genetic code of the abnormal cancer cells and to create a customized, personal treatment that will go after and kill those specific cells while not harming most of the normal or “good” cells.
There are many words or terms used by the healthcare providers to describe precision medicine, molecular testing or genetics. If you hear your doctor using a term you do not know or understand ask them to explain it to you in a manner in which you can understand.
