Dr. Whitman on Improving Precision Medicine in Oncology

Eric Whitman, MD, medical director of Atlantic Health System Cancer Care, Atlantic Health System, discusses improving precision medicine in oncology.

Physicians have to do a better job of classifying patients upfront, says Whitman. Whitman believes this will come from better understanding of the genetics of the tumor and the immune system as well as their overall interaction. This will enable physicians to make the best treatment decisions, says Whitman.

As part of Atlantic Health’s partnership with Origin and TGen, physicians are going to leverage the laboratory and technical abilities of TGen to identify the patients who should be treated and those who should avoid a specific therapy. Additionally, physicians have to be able to monitor a patient beyond what the size of their lesion is on their CAT scan. This may be through subtle changes in a patient’s immune system that can be identified through testing of the tumor. This will manifest in more efficient means of identifying whether a therapy is working or not, says Whitman.