Personalized Therapy
Recently, paradigm shifts in the way that Oncologists view cancer and the appropriate options for therapy have occurred through Personalized Therapy. This significant advancement works by identifying which patients are most likely to respond to selected therapy, thereby sparing exposure to a drug that is most unlikely to have any benefit. By identifying subtypes within specific cancers valuable time can be spared through avoidance of ineffective therapies. Conversly, patients can be guided to appropriate and efficacious therapy. These subtypes can be defined by different clinical, pathological, genetic and molecular factors.
Examples of Personalized Therapy in the Clinic
- Lung Cancer: pemetrexed (Alimta), was found to have a greater efficacy benefit in non-squamous compared to squamous patients
- Lung Cancer: erlotinib in patients with EGFR genetic mutations
- Colon Cancer: avoidance of cetuximab therapy in patients with Kras mutations
- Melanoma: Therapy targeting Braf mutatons found in melanoma have shown a greater than 70% response rate
Personalized therapy has revolutionized the approach to cancer therapy through research, integrating familial, molecular and genetic information with disease-specific biology, to bring individualized cancer therapy to the clinic. Transforming oncology care through research is a major mission of Clinical Trials at The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute. We are proud to integrate these principles into care of all patients seen in consultation.
Current and upcoming trials will offer access to these paradigm shifting therapeutics and include:
- Braf targeted therapies
- Mek targeted therapies
- Alk targeted therapies
- c-met inhibitors
- GPNMB targets in breast cancer
For more information call (310) 231-2185.
