Since its launch in 2016, the Sylvester Precision Medicine Initiative has provided late-stage cancer patients with recommendations and access to potentially life-extending targeted therapy. Precision Medicine, also known as personalized medicine, is an approach to cancer treatment that is targeted at genetic markers in your unique cancer. Because of this, precision medicine has a role in all disease types.
Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy is a type of treatment that addresses abnormalities in cells that can cause cancer. Development of new targeted therapies is happening rapidly. Therefore, the Precision Medicine Initiative keeps record of emerging targeted therapy and clinical trial options. This lets our physicians stay well informed about the newest and most effective treatment opportunities.
Next-Generation Sequencing Testing
Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is a type of molecular testing that rapidly analyzes DNA from a tumor to identify cancer promoting genetic changes. With the results from this test, the Precision Medicine Initiative can identify potential targeted therapy options or clinical trials based on your specific profile. The Precision Medicine Initiative can provide additional information related to NGS testing and the labs that perform the test.
Precision Oncology Studies and Clinical Trials
The Precision Medicine Initiative tracks all available trials at Sylvester that have molecular-related criteria for enrollment. Our team specifically oversees both treatment-based clinical trials and observational registry trials, which are listed below. These studies are not specific to one type of disease, but do have inclusion criteria based on molecular mutations in the tumor. If you are interested in these trials, reach out to the Precision Medicine Initiative for guidance.
NCI-MATCH – The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice or MATCH is a multi-arm precision medicine trial that seeks to treat patients with cancer with either FDA-approved drugs or experimental therapies based on your genomic mutations, and not specifically on your disease site. Patients must have NGS testing completed from labs partnered with the trial to enroll.
ASCO TAPUR Trial – The American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO) Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry or TAPUR is similar to MATCH in that it is mutation driven and disease type agnostic. Unlike MATCH, TAPUR’s arms only treat you with FDA-approved therapies, where the approved tumor types are excluded from these arms. You can have NGS testing from a wider variety of labs to be considered eligible. You may also use liquid biopsy/circulating tumor DNA NGS results to enroll.
GRAIL - CCGA Study – The GRAIL Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas study is one of the largest clinical observation programs ever developed. It plans to enroll thousands of at risk and newly diagnosed individuals to analyze their genetic profiles for patterns that may eventually predict cancer. Their ultimate goal is to improve prevention and early diagnosis of common and rare tumors.
DePICT – The Defining Platforms for Individualized Cancer Treatment (DePICT) study supports Sylvester's Broward patients in gaining access to NGS testing and interpretation of the results. This has included counseling the patients on the process of molecular testing, obtaining any necessary tissue for the testing via requests or biopsies, and submitting all necessary forms for testing.
Contact information:
For information about Sylvester’s Precision Medicine Initiative and related clinical trials please reach out to: Scccprecisionmed@miami.eduGrant funding sources:
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