U.K. Research knocks Wind out of personalized medicine research
A provocative new finding from U.K. researchers
gives the push for personalized medicine a big black eye. They found that a
single tumor can actually contain a number of genetic differences, and tumors
can also differ drastically on a genetic level from each other. That means that
the typical, single biopsy only paints one tiny part of a cancer's molecular
picture.
This is potentially significant news, with details
of the Cancer Research U.K. London Research Institute study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
News outlets including Reuters, Bloomberg, and the The
Associated Press have picked up the story. Here's why this is a big deal:
The finding, if it stands, could make the process of genetically profiling
patients and their tumors, and then developing or matching a specialized
treatment that addresses the mutation, more challenging than previously
believed. Thus, personalized medicine for the masses becomes much harder to
obtain.
"If you stick a needle in the right side of the tumor, you could miss a key mutation in the left side," study co-author Andrew Futreal explained to Bloomberg.
"If you stick a needle in the right side of the tumor, you could miss a key mutation in the left side," study co-author Andrew Futreal explained to Bloomberg.
On the one hand, this is a huge indictment of
existing approaches toward developing treatments from a single biopsy. And the
researchers said guiding treatment based on genetic tumor markers, as has been
the practice, probably doesn't cover enough bases. But Reuters says the
finding--which comes from a genome-wide analysis of the genetic changes of
different parts of the same tumor--also challenges the viability of treatments
already developed to target cancers with specific genetic qualities. The
NEJM speaks similarly, and argues in an editorial cited by The
Associated Press that the results could point to why the 15-plus
"personalized" medicines already on the market so far only have had limited
benefit.
On the other hand, technology may be a few years
away from fixing the problem. Brian Druker, a researcher who helped develop
Gleevec, a gene-based leukemia drug sold by Novartis ($NVS), told Bloomberg that he expects
advances in genetic sequencing, and its increased affordability, to solve the
problem eventually. The reason? Cheaper genetic sequencing will allow doctors to
affordably sequence many parts of a tumor, or multiple tumors from the same
patient and then develop a detailed treatment plan as a result, said Druker, now
director of the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health & Science
University in Portland, OR. But many cancer patients, of course, don't have a
few years.
Read more: U.K. research knocks wind out of personalized medicine push - FierceBiotech Research http://www.fiercebiotechresearch.com/story/uk-research-knocks-wind-out-personalized-medicine-push/2012-03-08#ixzz1p0bE7gCW
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