Precision oncology giveth and precision oncology taketh away

Mené sur 57 patients atteints d'un cancer colorectal HER2+ de stade métastatique, cet essai de phase IIa évalue l'efficacité, du point de vue de la proportion de patients obtenant une réponse objective, et la toxicité d'un traitement combinant pertuzumab et trastuzumab

Résumé en anglais

Efforts to improve outcomes for cancer patients often centre on molecular profiling of individual tumours to identify actionable mutations and alterations that allow doctors to tailor treatment to the individual patient. Although it is preferable to find an inclusionary marker—a particular molecular vulnerability that supports the use of a treatment that would otherwise not have been considered—exclusionary markers, mutations, or amplifications that preclude activity of an otherwise standard and seemingly reasonable treatment strategy, are also encountered. RAS mutations in colorectal cancer are a good example of an exclusionary marker, since the presence of a RAS mutation excludes the realistic possibility of benefit from an anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody and therefore precludes the use of anti-EGFR therapies in practice, thus sparing the patient the toxicity, expense, and false hope of a treatment that doctors know in advance will not work. Although inclusionary markers are preferred, both types of markers can improve the quality of patient care.