GENOMIC TESTING

Genomic testing has grown in importance as the number of targeted anticancer therapies rises. Early genomic testing can help to guide treatment choices.

In an interview with Targeted Therapies in Oncology, Nicholas J. Robert, MD, discussed what the results to date of the MYLUNG study mean for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

A new database organizes information on driver mutations for researchers.

A 59-year-old man presented with dyspnea on exertion, fatigue, anorexia, and a 5-lb weight loss. He received the diagnosis of stage IVA adenocarcinoma and had an ECOG performance status of 1.

Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute has expanded its molecular testing capabilities at its state-of-the-art Pathology Laboratory in Fort Myers and is providing patients with clinical next-generation sequencing.

Today, many community oncology practices routinely employ genetic testing, enabling newly diagnosed patients and their oncologists to make treatment decisions and to formulate preventive strategies based on genetic information.

During a Targeted Oncology Case-Based Roundtable event, Grace K. Dy, MD and 9 other physicians discussed molecular testing for patients with non–small cell lung cancer.

Michael J. Overman, MD, discusses the advances in testing for rare genomic alterations in colorectal cancer.

Potentially clinically actionable genomic alterations were identified in a majority of patients with advanced cancers with next-generation sequencing evaluated in a prospective study.

Novel methods of genetic testing have led to improved detection and better clinical decisions in patients with melanoma, especially in the late-stage setting.

As the understanding of genetic risk factors in breast cancer continues to grow, professional organizations have sought to provide specific recommendations for genetic testing that would prevent overtesting yet still diagnose as many mutations as possible in patients.

The FDA has granted approval to the VENTANA ALK CDx Assay as a companion diagnostic to identify patients with ALK-positive non–small cell lung cancer who may be eligible for treatment with the recently approved ALK inhibitor lorlatinib.

During a Targeted Oncology Case-Based Peer Perspectives event, Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, MD, discussed genomic testing and evidence-based treatment of a 60-year-old male patient with prostate cancer.

During a debate at the 27th Annual Prostate Cancer Foundation Virtual Scientific Retreat, Daniel Spratt, MD, debated Daniel Lin, MD, on the subject of genomic classifiers in prostate cancer.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology during the 2020 Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Ozge Ceyhan-Birsoy, PhD, discussed genetic testing methods for patients with hereditary predisposition and the molecular research underway at MSKCC to improve testing in this patient population.

The Access to Comprehensive Genomic Profiling Coalition has been formed by 7 leading diagnostic companies and laboratory providers across the United States to advocate for appropriate broad health insurance coverage of comprehensive genomic profiling for patients with advanced-stage cancer.

A pathogenic germline mutation rate of about 5% has been identified in women who had a family history of breast or ovarian cancer but no personal history of either disease.

Jennifer Marie Suga, MD, discusses how the results from next-generation sequencing tests are assessed to help physicians manage their patients in real-time.

Jennifer Marie Suga, MD, discusses implementing a genomic oncology program at Kaiser Permanente Northern California through large-scale genomic next generation sequencing testing of patients with advanced cancers in the community setting.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Carl Morrison, MD, DVM, senior vice president Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed the rationale for evaluating the Ion Torrent-based approach to predicting response to immunotherapy. He highlighted the importance of this in the clinical setting and advances are necessary to further validate this as a biomarker of response.

Microsatellite instability has been an FDA-indicated biomarker for immunotherapy since 2017, when the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab was approved for patients with solid tumors found to be mismatch repair deficient or MSI high. Other approvals since then, such as for the combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab in patients with MSI-H/dMMR metastatic colorectal can­cer, have established the relevance of cancer thera­pies for tumors with this biomarker specifically rather than tumor histology alone.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Whitney Ducaine, MGC, CGC, CN-BM, discussed the evolution of genetic testing in oncology. She highlighted the importance of having conversations with genetic counselors to help inform the patient on their familial risks as well to help inform treatment decisions.

Julie R. Brahmer, MD, discusses the role of molecular testing for patients with lung cancer and why this is particularly important for those with early-stage disease.

High volumes of mutations observed through liquid biopsies may be associated with an improvement in progression-free survival  and clinical benefit after first-line standard-of-care pembrolizumab-based therapy in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, according to findings from a prospective biomarker trial conducted by investigators at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Abramson Cancer Center, which were published in Clinical Cancer Research.

Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors appears to elicit limited clinical activity in patients with osteosarcoma. In a study, investigators at MD Anderson Cancer Center found that certain factors like poor infiltration of the tumor by immune cells, low activity from available T cells, a lack of immune-stimulating neoantigens, and multiple immune-suppressing pathways may interfere with response to immunotherapy in these patients, according to a press release from the organization.<br /> &nbsp;