By: Gabriela del Amo
Cancer is a term that has historically been associated with fear, anxiety, and agony. Cancer patients have suffered cruel treatments like chemotherapy and radiation for decades that hit cancerous as well as normal cells. Although these therapies have saved innumerable lives, they have agonizing side effects and don’t always impact everyone in the same manner. But now, thanks to a new development called precision medicine, the war on cancer is getting more targeted, more potent, and more individualized than ever.
Precision medicine is a method of practicing medicine based on a broad data set of a patient’s environment, genes, and lifestyle to prevent, detect, and treat disease. In cancer, precision medicine consists of analyzing the genetic mutations or changes in a patient’s tumor for constructing a treatment plan specifically tailored for that cancer.
In traditional cancer treatment, two people with the same cancer—say lung or breast cancer—can receive the same chemotherapy. But their tumors will often react very differently. One’s shrinks, while the other’s barely changes. It’s because cancer isn’t one disease—it’s hundreds of diseases that grow in unique ways depending on the person’s DNA.
With precision medicine, doctors are able to use tests like genomic sequencing to examine the DNA of the tumor. They look for recognized genetic mutations that spur cancer to develop. After they identify the exact mutations, they are then able to select drugs that are designed to block those exact changes. Those drugs are called targeted therapies.
The most significant benefit of precision medicine is that it allows patients to receive the right treatment at the right time and this leads to better outcomes with fewer side effects. Instead of trusting one-size-fits-all chemotherapy, precision medicine allows doctors to approach the disease more like a puzzle—fitting the right pieces together based on the patient’s unique biology.
For example, a person with lung cancer that carries an EGFR gene mutation can receive a drug that targets only that particular gene, rather than broad chemotherapy. Targeted drugs are typically pill-based, can be taken at home, and may have fewer side effects than traditional therapy.
Precision medicine is also giving new hope to patients with rare or difficult-to-treat cancers. Previously, certain cancers were impervious to any available therapies. Today, by examining the genetic makeup of these cancers, doctors are finding new approaches to attacking them with customized therapies.
In addition, precision medicine avoids unproductive treatment. In the event that a doctor knows that a particular drug will not work based on the patient’s tumor profile, he or she can skip it and try another drug, and the patient is spared time, money, and pain.
Precision medicine is also opening doors for doctors to learn more about cancer and how it grows. Physicians now have the capability to look inside a tumor at a molecular level, knowing better what is happening inside a patient’s body. This allows them to make more intelligent, better-informed treatment decisions.
It’s also enabling scientists to produce new medicines faster. Previously, drugs were tested on large numbers of people to see if they worked on average. Scientists are now able to create drugs for smaller groups of patients who have specific mutations, and therefore the trials get more efficient and focused. This is making more focused medicines accessible and giving patients more treatment options than ever.
Both hospitals and cancer centers are also building databases of genetic information, allowing doctors to consider one patient’s case alongside thousands of others. This can make patterns emerge and treatments that were effective for similar patients, maximizing outcome across the board.
The future of precision medicine as it applies to the treatment of cancer is very bright. As technologies get better and cheaper, more and more genomic testing will become a part of cancer diagnosis. Eventually, every cancer patient may have his or her tumor genomically analyzed before a plan of treatment is developed.
Scientists are also investigating how precision medicine can be combined with other technologies, including immunotherapy, which utilizes the body’s own immune cells to fight cancer. With a person’s genes in mind, doctors can make even more targeted and effective immune therapies.
Artificial intelligence will also play a big role. AI can quickly sort through enormous amounts of genetic data and allow physicians to identify patterns and predict which treatments will work best. With increasingly more people participating in genetic research and providing their health data (with protection for privacy), doctors will better know cancer and how it acts in different populations. In other words, remedies can be more specific—not just for individuals, but for communities.
Precision medicine is something greater than a medical trend—it’s a new mindset for how to think about cancer. By focusing on each individual’s biology and tumor, doctors can deliver treatments more potent, less toxic, and more hopeful. As technology grows, though, it’s already making a difference in people’s lives. And in the years ahead, it may change cancer from a frightening diagnosis to a treatable disease—and eventually, a curable one.
