Impact of Precision Medicine in Refractory Malignancies

Maria Schwaederle, PharmD, Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy and Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of California, San Diego, discusses results of a meta-analysis of 13,203 patients in phase I clinical trials.

In the analysis, researchers sought to determine the impact of biomarkers. Although there is a growing interest in precision medicine, many clinical trials still do not use biomarkers to select patients, Schwaederle says. Data were extracted from over 13,000 patients from 2011 to 2013 in order to assess the impact of using a biomarker.

Results showed that in studies that used a biomarker response rates were 31% versus 5% for studies that did not use a biomarker. There were also differences in progression-free survival, Schwaederle says. Additionally, protein and allogeneic biomarkers did lead to improved outcomes; however, the use of genomic biomarkers did tend to perform better, she adds.