Megan Sanders, Chief Executive Officer at Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Precision oncology has moved quickly in lung cancer.
But the challenge is no longer access to genomic testing.
It’s what we do with the information.
Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia‘s ‘Beyond the NGS report’ webinar showed us that understanding DNA and RNA alterations, and how to interpret a diagnostic molecular report, are still the fundamentals, but these tools are increasingly being applied to treatment decisions beyond 1L.
In Australia, we’ve made real progress on the fundamentals:
- Multi-gene tissue NGS panels are reimbursed
- Guidelines have embedded molecular testing in routine care
- Target therapies reimbursed in many indications
- Moving towards more consistent and easily interpreted molecular pathology reports from different providers
But we’re now seeing the potential of:
- prognostic biology (TP53, STK11, KEAP1, MTAP)
- co-mutations driving early resistance
- tumour evolution – subclonality and transformation
Which means the next step is better interpretation and smarter treatment decisions, likely involving rational combinations and increasing use of liquid biopsy to track disease in real time…yes, we need to adopt the forward thinking seen o/s at NHS, and make liquid biopsy more readily available.
TOGA is driving this change and access through the MRFF Frontiers grant-funded ASPI-2L trial that enables liquid biopsy at progression, during treatment and again at progression through several lines of treatment.
If you registered for the webinar but didn’t make it, an invite with an OnDemand link will appear in your inbox in the next few days. The presentations included plenty of case studies for contextual learning, so well worth a look.
If you’ve missed registration, the presentations will appear on our YouTube channel soon.
Thank you to Ben Kong, Malinda Itchins (esp. for featured slides), Lavinia Tan, Stephen Fox, Caroline Cooper, Jennifer Borowsky for leading this comprehensive teaching webinar, and to our Sponsors Johnson&Johnson, Eisai and Merck.”
Other articles featuring Megan Sanders on OncoDaily.
