Paradigm shift in cancer treatment to targeted therapies

1. HER2 targeted breast cancer treatment has significantly improved prognosis.

2. Novel immune checkpoint therapies have resulted in considerable clinical response for a variety of cancer types.

Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)

Study Rundown: Cancer therapy is a continually evolving field, as researchers strive to determine the most effective methods of treating this complex disease. One of the mainstays of cancer treatment is cytotoxic chemotherapy, a relatively nonselective treatment that results in cell death of cancerous—and potentially noncancerous—tissues. One of the rising new treatments in cancer treatment is targeted therapy, which refers to preferentially targeting cancer cells. The authors of this study wrote a review providing an overview of the landscape of current tissue-agnostic cancer therapy treatments and the future of cancer therapy. One of the limitations of this review was that some of the treatments mentioned are currently in clinical trials and the results are pending the completion of these trials. Overall, this review provided a strong overview of different types of targeted cancer therapies for lung cancer, gastroesophageal cancer, and breast cancer, among other cancer types.

Click to read the study in Annals of Internal Medicine

Relevant Reading: Precision medicine becomes reality— tumor type-agnostic therapy

In-Depth [review]: The authors of this study wrote a review of current targeted cancer treatments available and in trial. They provided an overview of specific types of tissue-agnostic treatments for various cancer types, as well as described some of the trial designs and overall theories behind targeted therapy. Generally, the authors described three biomarkers, BRAF V600, HER2, and BRCA1/2 mutation, with respect to therapeutic cancer targets and treatment approaches. BRAF plays an important role in lung cancer and cutaneous melanoma. The authors addressed that studies have shown improved outcomes in survival for patients with the BRAF mutation undergoing targeted treatment. Similar results were observed for other cancer types as well.

Image: PD

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