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A meeting of some of the UK’s leading cancer specialists took place to discuss how to prepare for a future in which patients’ DNA is tested and treatments are tailored to their specific genetic defects.
Integrated Molecular Diagnostics into Personalised Medicine was held at the Wolfson Auditorium at The Royal College of Physicians, London, on Friday 21 May 2010.
The meeting covered the challenges and latest advances in personalised medicine, including genes currently under investigation as potential treatment targets and research into biological markers to predict patients who are likely to benefit. The importance of regulatory, laboratory and clinical trial practice changes were also discussed.
Meeting co-chair Professor Gareth Morgan, a haematology expert at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), said: “Drugs are already appearing on the market that are only effective for specific sub-types of cancer, and the key as more of these personalised medicines reach the market is that the systems are in place to make sure they reach the right patients. This is the focus of a major research effort at The Royal Marsden and ICR, and today’s meeting will allow us to communicate our progress to the scientific community.”
Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory
Researchers from The Royal Marsden and ICR also shared their experience in setting up the largest molecular pathology laboratory in the UK that routinely and specifically diagnoses cancer patients.
The Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, located at the ICR in Sutton, opened in 2006 and assessed around 3,000 patients in the past year. Among other investigations, it tests patients’ samples to see whether their cancers are caused by a particular genetic mutation for which treatment is currently available, and usually returns results within a week.
Drugs already on the market that act only against tumours with a specific genetic profile include imatinib for some types of leukaemias and stomach cancers, cetuximab and panitumumab for subtypes of colorectal cancer, and gefitinib for non-small cell lung cancers.
“Speed is crucial, as patients need to start appropriate treatment as quickly as possible. Our expertise in testing for cancer subtypes means that turnaround times for genetics tests are generally three to seven working days – fast enough to be taken into account when deciding patients’ treatment,” says Dr David Gonzalez de Castro, head of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. “It’s no longer considered experimental medicine – it’s a specialised area but it’s becoming routine.”
