ABSTRACT
Cancer care is one area where genomic testing has made substantial inroads in clinical practice. It’s now routine for newly-diagnosed patients to have their tumor tested to identify the underlying mutation, to inform treatment decisions, or even determine a patient’s eligibility for clinical trials. Pharmaceutical companies are betting big on molecularly-targeted drugs and new treatments that harness the immune system to attack cancer. Big Data is what makes personalized cancer care possible, so hospitals, scientists, genetic testing companies, and others are building extensive databases of genomic mutations and corresponding patient data. But most patients and providers are still stymied by operational barriers to this type of care, from ordering the right test to getting it paid for. In this chapter, we describe the cutting edge of cancer care and outline what we see happening in the future.
