A new, gene-based test can reveal whether cancer treatment will work for you.
A gene-based test can predict how patients will respond to treatment for a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A study identified specific genetic patterns that could predict how long patients with large-B-cell lymphoma would live when treated with a standard combination-drug therapy, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Lymphoma is a cancer that starts in the lymph system.
The results give scientists a “new perspective” in developing genetically targeted therapies, especially for those patients who don’t respond well to standard treatment.
The findings “give us some real food for thought about new therapeutic strategies” tailored to patients’ genetic profiles, said Louis Staudt of the US National Cancer Institute, a study co-author. For patients with this kind of lymphoma, “What we hope, and what we are working on, is that there will be a day when this information will be a part of diagnosis.”
Scientists are trying to determine why only about half of the patients with the disease are cured, said Staudt.
The researchers identified genetic “signatures” by profiling the activity of genes in samples from 414 patients from North America and Europe. Data from another 177 patients from an earlier study also were analysed. Some of the patients received the standard treatment of four chemotherapy drugs. Another group was given that combination plus the cancer drug Rituxan.
The scientists used a model in which patients were divided into four subgroups based on their genetic signatures. Patients whose disease had not progressed after three years ranged from a high of 89 percent in one group to a low of 33 percent in another.
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Scientists determined the genetic signature that helps predict how patients will respond held true even after Rituxan was added to the standard chemotherapy.
The findings “provide a new perspective on current and future clinical trials” for large-B-cell lymphoma, the authors said. The findings suggest, for example, that only a few patients would benefit from Genentech’s and Roche Holding AG’s cancer drug Avastin, a monoclonal antibody. Avastin works by stopping a process called angiogenesis that forms blood vessels to feed tumours.
Charis Eng, director of the Genomic Medicine Institute for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, said the study provided clarity, unlike other studies of genomic profiling that have “often resulted in confusion and, at times, disappointment”. This study identifies genetic fingerprints that “differentiated the best prognosis from the worst prognosis,” Eng wrote.