Study highlights more precise path for personalised cancer care

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Following DNA Day, new research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) shows that the same genetic mutation can mean very different things depending on the cancer type in which it appears, with direct implications for how patients are treated.

MSK researchers analysed the DNA of more than 48,000 cancer patients across nearly 450 distinct cancer types, mapping cancer-causing mutations in remarkable detail. The study was conducted through MSK-IMPACT, MSK's tumor sequencing test, which profiles patients' tumors to match them with appropriate therapies based on the molecular features of their cancer.

The central finding is that when a mutation appears in a cancer type where it is commonly seen, it tends to be an early driver of tumor growth, present throughout the cancer. When the same mutation appears in an unexpected cancer type, which occurred about one third of the time in the study, it tends to arise later, appear in only a subset of tumor cells, and play a less central role in driving the disease.

This means genomic results cannot be read in isolation. Cancer type must be taken into account, particularly when sequencing is used to guide treatment decisions.

The study also examined the role of fusion genes in early-onset cancers and the relationship between genetic ancestry and likelihood of response to immunotherapies including T cell receptor therapy.

Precision oncology tools: MSK-IMPACT identifies actionable alterations in tumor tissue to inform diagnosis, treatment planning, and access to targeted therapies and clinical trials.

It is complemented by MSK-ACCESS, MSK's liquid biopsy test, which provides genomic profiling and disease monitoring using cell-free DNA from blood and other body fluids. Developed using data from more than 25,000 tumors previously sequenced with MSK-IMPACT, MSK-ACCESS allows clinicians to identify tumor-related mutations through a blood draw, monitor disease burden, characterize drug resistance, and track how tumors evolve over time.

For patients traveling from the Middle East for specialized cancer care, this integrated genomic capability can be critical when rapid molecular insight is needed to determine next steps.