Translating Cancer Genomics Into A Personalized Approach For Cancer Patients

By Kay-Oliver Kliche, MD, Medical Director of Hematology and Oncology, Medical Affairs, PRA Health Sciences

This white paper provides a brief history of oncology genomics, including development, uses in improving patient care, current achievements and challenges and the future direction of cancer genomics.

Over the past few decades, the approach to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has radically shifted from organ-based to morphology-based and most recently, to genetics-based. Personalized or precision medicine (tailoring a treatment for a patient’s particular disease at a precise time point) is being performed every day at different levels in the clinical setting.