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Fast-evolving treatment options and emerging technologies continue to advance the field of Precision Oncology
February 17, 2023

Fast-evolving treatment options and emerging technologies continue to advance the field of Precision Oncology

The 4th Precision Oncology Symposium of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich will bring together international leaders in the field of functional precision medicine including oncologists, cancer researchers and data experts to discuss latest developments and future directions.  Click the button below to register today!

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An ex vivo platform to guide drug combination treatment in relapsed/refractory lymphoma
January 13, 2023

An ex vivo platform to guide drug combination treatment in relapsed/refractory lymphoma

Patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHLs) often relapse after frontline treatment, and interpatient heterogeneity make personalized combination treatment difficult. Goh et al. have developed a hybrid experimental-analytic method that they call quadratic phenotypic optimization platform, or QPOP, to identify personalized drug combination therapies using ex vivo patient samples to improve patient outcomes. In a prospective cohort, physicians were able to alter treatment according to drug combinations identified using QPOP after 6 days to achieve complete responses in 5 of 17 patients with NHL. This is a promising step for providing new hope for patients who have relapsed NHL and provides a foundation for further clinical trials.

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Ex vivo venetoclax sensitivity testing predicts treatment response in acute myeloid leukemia
December 20, 2022

Ex vivo venetoclax sensitivity testing predicts treatment response in acute myeloid leukemia

A follow up to our October Seminar

The BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax has revolutionized the treatment of AML patients not benefiting from intensive chemotherapy. Nevertheless, treatment failure remains a challenge, and predictive markers are needed, particularly for R/R AML. Although, the ex vivo drug sensitivity testing has been used by several research groups, very few prospective trials have analyzed the correlation of drug sensitivity testing results to treatment outcome

VenEx is a prospective Phase 2 trial aiming to evaluate if ex vivo drug sensitivity testing could be used to identify AML patients who benefit from venetoclax + azacitidine therapy. This interim analysis of 39 first trial participants demonstrated that the experimental conditions significantly influenced predictive accuracy. Blast-specific venetoclax sensitivity measured in conditioned medium most accurately correlated with treatment outcomes; 88% of sensitive participants achieved treatment response. Median survival was significantly longer for ex vivo sensitive participants. This analysis illustrates the feasibility of integrating drug-response profiling into clinical practice and demonstrates excellent predictivity. The second stage of the trial is on-going to validate these results.

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The American Society of Hematology Webinar
October 11, 2022

The American Society of Hematology Webinar

The American Society of Hematology welcomes SFPM President Dr. Tony Letai, Dr. Philipp Staber, & Dr. Caroline Heckman to discuss "Functional Precision Hematology" at their October 11 webinar.

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SFPM comment on rule NCD190.8
September 2, 2022

SFPM comment on rule NCD190.8

The SFPM has submitted a comment on CMS rule NCD190.7, which currently acts as a barrier to reimbursement for functional precision medicine assays in the United States. We propose that this outdated rule be retired so that assays can be individually assessed by local Medicare Administrative Contractors for reimbursement. If you agree with this statement, either as an individual or a company in the FPM space, please consider adding your own comment here. Note that comments are being accepted only through Tuesday, September 6, so time is short.

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Functional testing to characterize and stratify PI3K inhibitor responses in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
August 25, 2022

Functional testing to characterize and stratify PI3K inhibitor responses in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors (PI3Ki) are approved for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). While patients may show an initial response to these therapies, development of treatment intolerance or resistance remains clinical challenges. To overcome these, prediction of individual treatment responses based on actionable biomarkers is needed. Here, we characterized the activity and cellular effects of ten PI3Ki and investigated whether functional analyses can identify treatment vulnerabilities in PI3Ki-refractory/intolerant CLL and stratify responders to PI3Ki.

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Precision Medicine and Therapeutic Resistance Collection
June 28, 2022

Precision Medicine and Therapeutic Resistance Collection

Check out this great collection of Precision Medicine and Therapeutic Research curated by Cancer Discovery editors selected from the Journal. Some of these select original research articles are followed by their corresponding In the Spotlight commentaries, which serve to place them in the context of their field

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Functional Precision Medicine Provides Clinical Benefit in Advanced Aggressive Hematologic Cancers and Identifies Exceptional Responders
March 15, 2022

Functional Precision Medicine Provides Clinical Benefit in Advanced Aggressive Hematologic Cancers and Identifies Exceptional Responders

This February 2020 issue of Cancer Discovery features reports of two very important prospective clinical trials from SFPM members in Zurich, Vienna, Stockholm and Helsinki. Both studies demonstrate the feasibility and utility of functional precision medicine tools in the clinical oncology setting. A commentary by Tony Letai accompanies these articles.

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Implementing a Functional Precision Medicine Tumor Board for Acute Myeloid Leukemia
March 15, 2022

Implementing a Functional Precision Medicine Tumor Board for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

This February 2020 issue of Cancer Discovery features reports of two very important prospective clinical trials from SFPM members in Zurich, Vienna, Stockholm and Helsinki. Both studies demonstrate the feasibility and utility of functional precision medicine tools in the clinical oncology setting. A commentary by Tony Letai accompanies these articles.

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Functional Precision Medicine: Putting Drugs on Patient Cancer Cells and Seeing What Happens
March 15, 2022

Functional Precision Medicine: Putting Drugs on Patient Cancer Cells and Seeing What Happens

This February 2020 issue of Cancer Discovery features reports of two very important prospective clinical trials from SFPM members in Zurich, Vienna, Stockholm and Helsinki. Both studies demonstrate the feasibility and utility of functional precision medicine tools in the clinical oncology setting. A commentary by Tony Letai accompanies these articles.

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