The Next Hurdle for Personalized Medicine—Radiation Therapy

[摘要] Testing for somatic mutations in cancer is currently a widely accepted and often used tool. The molecular profile obtained from such testing helps to make decisions regarding chemotherapy regimens or targeted therapeutics. However, there is no use of such testing in radiation oncology where a wide range of patients get identical therapy regardless of genetic information.At the most recent annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, multiple researchers presented data focused on incorporating genetic data into treatment decisions for radiation therapy (1). Areas of research included tumor profiling to determine radiation susceptibility and germline sequencing to determine the likelihood and severity of side effects of radiotherapy.Such research has the potential to greatly impact outcomes, since almost two-thirds of cancer patients receive radiation therapy of some form. While technologies …

[学科分类] 过敏症与临床免疫学