The Impact of Precision Medicine in Oncology

Ryan Bookout, PharmD, president, Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association, and clinical pharmacist, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the impact of recent advances made in the oncology space and how precision medicine is improving patient outcomes.

For decades, chemotherapy has been the standard of care for most cancers, but patient outcomes have not drastically changed over the years. However, with the recent progress made in molecular profiling and genetic testing, oncologists are doing a better job of integrating targeted therapies into practice.

Moving forward, the challenge will be selecting the right oral drug, immunotherapy, or cellular therapy for each patient’s individualized disease, Bookout says. Upfront treatment will need to be followed by additional approaches to manage stable, chronic disease.

Bookout postulates that the field of oncology will follow that of diabetes, in that patients with cancer will be able to live for many years with the disease. Eventually, cancer will be eradicated in some forms, he adds, but the ultimate goal of oncologists is to turn incurable subtypes into manageable chronic diseases.