ABSTRACT

Precision oncology combines state-of-the-art molecular profiling of each patient with established clinical-pathological indexes to inform individual patient’s diagnostic and prognostic risk profile. This chapter discusses key techniques employed at the forefront of personalized medicine, presented at the 2017 Irish Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. In melanoma, advancements in our understanding of both the genetic landscape and the role of the immune system have enabled the development of more effective targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Endocrine therapies represent the gold standard for the treatment of breast cancer as first line treatments following curative surgery. Tailoring personalized treatments to recurrent, resistant tumors necessitates understanding drug resistance in heterogeneous tumors. Metastatic cancers challenged with targeted agents promote growth of resistant cell populations and consequently targeted therapies are often only transiently effective. Circulating biomarkers can allow the calculation of patient risk, tumor mass and heterogeneity, and the prediction/monitoring of treatment outcomes, in real-time.