GENOMIC TESTING

At the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology–Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Clinical Immuno-Oncology Symposium, Natalie Vokes, MD, MPhil, reviews the latest evidence linking tumor mutational burden to outcome in patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade as well as genomic correlates of response within the tumor immunity cycle.

An analysis of the genotyping of tumor tissue samples from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma identified frequent alterations and potentially actionable mutations in cases of HCC, and helped to confirm the clinical utility of next-generation sequencing testing for matching patients to targeted therapies and immunotherapies.

Genomic testing could increasingly be utilized to guide treatment decisions for Veteran patients with cancer. Two recent announcements confirm an emerging focus from Veterans Affairs on genetic testing that provides more informed and tailored cancer care for US Veterans.

Lung Cancer

Over 60 healthcare organizations are pressing the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to revise its current interpretation of the National Coverage Determination, which they say wrongly excludes germline next-generation sequencing-based testing from Medicare coverage for patients with early-stage cancers.<br /> &nbsp;