In recent years, precision medicine has gained relevance in health treatment. With this method, it is possible to take into account aspects such as lifestyle, genes, environment to personalize the treatment.
“Precision medicine has revolutionized cancer treatment,” said experts at Clínica Las Condes Cancer Center, primarily Dr. Suraj Samtani. Previously, treatments were based on the origin of the tumors and the organ from which they arise. For example, breast cancer, lung cancer or ovarian cancer, but today we know that, if we put ten lung cancer patients, those ten patients will have characteristics that make them different and they differentiate between them. Can receive personalized and guided treatment.
In this sense, he pointed out that one of the main developments in cancer patients is to establish therapeutic decisions in an individualized way, this means based on the molecular characteristics of each patient’s tumor. “This is called precision medicine, which allows a certain percentage of patients with different tumors to receive targeted and personalized treatments for these molecular or genomic changes that cause tumor growth, that have greater specificity, so traditional “There is greater efficacy and less toxicity than other treatments,” he said.
In simple words, experts explained that precision medicine involves the study of mutations presented by tumors. Biopsies are performed on damaged tissue or there are platforms today that can measure these molecular changes in the blood.
“In Chile this tool exists and at Clínica Las Condes we also have sequencing studies in some tumors that allow us to provide targeted and personalized treatments,” he commented. However, this is not an easy treatment, as it is an essential challenge if we want to remain at the forefront of research and it requires national strategic plans that guide its implementation to avoid diagnostic and therapeutic disparities in the national territory. give rise to.
“Some strategies should be discussed at the national level so that hopefully all patients in both the public and private sectors can access this information. “It is important to have this before starting any treatment, as we can find highly effective treatments and avoid treatments with greater toxicity for the patient,” he concluded.
(tagstotranslate)cancer