Precision oncology and molecular diagnostics: The changing landscape of personalized medicine
In this far-ranging and exciting webinar, Dr Manmeet Ahluwalia, Chief Science Officer at Baptist Health is joined by Dr Thomas Slavin, Medical Director of Haystack Oncology at Quest Diagnostics. Together, they share the rapid advancements in precision diagnostics and groundbreaking oncology treatments that have transformed cancer care.
Moving beyond chemotherapy
Before modern medicines, treating cancers with chemotherapies was “like a bomb,” describes Dr Ahluwalia, “not only do we kill the cancer cell, we kill any cell that is rapidly dividing.” From the development of the first targeted therapy to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in 2000, Dr Ahluwalia chronicles a host of advancements in precision oncology medicines that have dramatically improved lifespans for patients.
The big leap forward in targeted therapies happens as researchers begin developing a tissue-agnostic approach. In other words, rather than seeing all cancers in relation to their organ system, molecular profiling begins to identify specific gene alterations that occur across cancers, so that the same drugs approved for one cancer can be used to treat patients with a completely different cancer. As a result, “every year, we have half a dozen to dozens of drugs which are now getting approved.”
Dr Ahluwalia outlines some of the most recent advancements and studies of the last 5 years in antibody/drug conjugation where specific proteins that are driving cancers are used as a trojan horse to carry medicine only to the cancer cells, minimizing damage to surrounding tissue.
Recruiting the body’s own defenses with immunotherapy
Everyone’s body has an innate mechanism that can kill cancer cells, although this process is often overwhelmed. Ahluwalia demonstrates how the use of monoclonal antibodies helps to armor the body’s immune response, which has become the first line of treatment for many kinds of aggressive cancer. Most recently, Ahluwalia reports, the combination of drug antibody conjugation with immunotherapy is helping patients do even better.
Expanding access to molecular diagnostics
Dr Slavin outlines many of the barriers to implementing molecular diagnostics in our healthcare system, along with some of the encouraging shifts toward more comprehensive and accessible patient care. He shows the impact that molecular diagnostics are having at each stage of the cancer care continuum, from initial screening to patient monitoring post-treatment.
Slavin goes on to describe many of the new tools in personalized diagnostics, including liquid biopsies, multi-cancer early detection, and blood tests for monitoring circulating tumor DNA to catch recurring cancers. “One take home from this talk today, hopefully, is that you start seeing the interaction of of having multiple different molecular diagnostics come together across the patient's journey.”
The next frontier of AI
As both presenters point out, artificial intelligence is rapidly accelerating the field. According to Dr Ahluwalia, with AI, “we can speed through massive amounts of data generated in molecular profiling, and in the noise, find the music.”
Maybe, Slavin sees a time when some molecular testing may even be replaced by AI-assisted digital pathology by spotting patterns without the need for more testing. “We are really at the forefront of also seeing how that interplays with molecular diagnostics.”
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