Herbert Loong, Advisor at Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute, and Steering Committee Member at Lung Cancer Policy Network, shared on LinkedIn:
“Precision oncology in Asia: big opportunity, uneven access.
About 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia. Yet biomarker-driven cancer care across the region is still concentrated in urban and academic centres.
I’m pleased to share our new open-access review in the Journal of Immunotherapy and Precision Oncology, ‘Molecular Profiling in Asia: The Current Status and Approach,’ written with Sewanti Limaye, Mahin Bhatt, Judy Ka Hei Chan.
We look at where things stand:
- Next-generation sequencing: from hotspot panels, still the most widely used in Asia, to comprehensive genomic profiling and whole exome and whole genome sequencing
- Liquid biopsy: ctDNA and CTCs for real-time monitoring and spotting resistance without repeat biopsies
- Multiomics: combined molecular data to guide treatment
- Molecular tumour boards: turning complex results into decisions on therapy and trial enrolment
Barriers remain: high costs and limited reimbursement, uneven infrastructure, too few molecular pathologists, bioinformaticians and genetic counsellors, and too little genomic data from Asian populations.
Our proposals: better physician and patient education, wider use of trial-matching platforms, and genomic datasets built for the region.
Asia has the scale and the science to lead in precision oncology.
The task now is making it fair and accessible to every patient.
Open access: Molecular Profiling in Asia: The Current Status and Approach․”
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