A precision medicine platform incorporating RNA sequencing and copy number alterations (CNA) identified targeted treatment options for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM), according to a study published in JCO Precision Oncology.1
There is increasing interest in the use of precision medicine — the testing of genetic mutations to guide treatment selection — in oncology. “MM is a genetically complex disease and the large mutational heterogeneity observed across patients suggests that the employment of a personalized therapeutic approach is likely to improve outcomes,” Alessandro Laganà, PhD, assistant professor of genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, New York, and an author of the study, told Cancer Therapy Advisor.
“Most clinics test patients for genetic markers, but mostly for risk stratification, not precision medicine,” Rafael Fonseca, MD, the Getz Family Professor of cancer, chair of the department of medicine, and distinguished Mayo investigator of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, who is not affiliated with the study, told Cancer Therapy Advisor.
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The aim of this study was to develop a precision medicine approach that uses both DNA and RNA sequencing to identify actionable mutations among patients with MM. “The main difference from other molecular profiling tests is that they are based on DNA sequencing, while we also integrate analysis of the RNA — which enables the identification of more therapeutic options that would not be possible to select based solely on genetic mutations,” Dr Laganà said.
