Cancer subclonal genetic architecture as a key to personalized medicine

Neoplasia. 2013 Dec;15(12):1410-20. doi: 10.1593/neo.131972.

Abstract

The future of personalized oncological therapy will likely rely on evidence-based medicine to integrate all of the available evidence to delineate the most efficacious treatment option for the patient. To undertake evidence-based medicine through use of targeted therapy regimens, identification of the specific underlying causative mutation(s) driving growth and progression of a patient's tumor is imperative. Although molecular subtyping is important for planning and treatment, intraclonal genetic diversity has been recently highlighted as having significant implications for biopsy-based prognosis. Overall, delineation of the clonal architecture of a patient's cancer and how this will impact on the selection of the most efficacious therapy remain a topic of intense interest.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Humans
  • Molecular Diagnostic Techniques
  • Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Neoplasms / pathology
  • Neoplasms / therapy
  • Precision Medicine / trends*