Genetically tailored cancer care on NHS

Genetically tailored cancer care

A groundbreaking approach to cancer treatments is to be offered to National Health Service (NHS) patients later this year, with UK patients being offered genetically tailored cancer care for the very first time.

Cancer Research UK is going to launch the pilot scheme during the Autumn, and will study the most effective ways in which genetic diagnostic techniques can be utilised across the NHS as a whole, so that eventually all patients may be able to benefit from personalised genetically tailored cancer care.

Annually, up to 6,000 cancer patients will have their tumours analysed for a wide range of genetic defects which could enable doctors to select the most effective treatments. By teaming up with the NHS, Cancer Research UK hopes to revolutionise both the national and, ultimately, international approach to cancer treatment.

"We believe that cancer medicine has reached a point where increasingly the genetic characteristics of individuals' tumours will and should dictate what treatments they receive" said Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK.

Dr. Kumal continued: "We now have enough genetic markers and drugs for this to make a real difference" and said "It's patently obvious that this is going to be the way of the future. In the long term, once the benefits are proven, the NHS should be doing this."

Current cancer care costly and ineffective

Currently, cancer treatments are selected according to where cancerous tumours lie within the patients' body. However, the new innovative approach will see doctors using genetic mutations to categorise individual patients' cancer types and tailoring treatments and medical choices accordingly.

James Peach, Cancer Research UK's director of stratified medicines said that, "Genetic analysis can give much more information on how likely the tumour is to grow or to react to certain treatments. For example, certain genetic types of prostate cancer grow more quickly, and certain types of lung cancer are more likely to respond well to targeted 'next generation' drugs like gefitinib and erlotinib."

The introduction of genetically tailored cancer care is now possible, said Mr. Peach, because genetic testing has become considerably cheaper and the NHS can finally afford to implement these tests. In 2000, the first genome cost US$2.7 billion, whereas now a single mutation test can be administered on the NHS for just GBP£200.

"Importantly," Mr. Peach added, "tests can also predict whether certain drugs won't work - sparing patients potentially unnecessary treatment and making things more cost-effective."

Scientists at Cancer Research UK said that by 2015 this approach could have become routine procedure and believe that doing so could also save the NHS a considerable amount of money by cutting down on ineffective treatments for cancer patients.

UK to lead the way

The launch of genetically tailored cancer care in the UK relies heavily on a strong and cohesive partnership between Cancer Research UK and the NHS, along with patients, the research community, pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry, and the government, said Mr. Peach, and all results will be stored for future research.

"If we get this right," said Dr. Kumal, "there is no reason to believe that the UK can't lead the world in this area."

Director of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Professor Mike Stratton, agreed that the UK pilot scheme offering genetically tailored cancer care could have a huge impact across the entire globe.

"Discoveries of new cancer genes, of new drug targets and of new ways to predict whether patients will respond to particular therapies are accelerating, but a major challenge is how to obtain the benefits of these advances for patients in the NHS" said Prof. Stratton, and that "This initiative will form the basis for doing just that."

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