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Cancer Drug Testing
University Hospitals Birmingham: Leading in Sophisticated Cancer Cell Analysis For Personalised Therapy
Cancer therapies are constantly improving and becoming increasingly accurate, and University Hospitals Birmingham is now carrying out genetic testing of cancer patients to see if sophisticated new “smart” drugs” will suit them.
This new generation of smart drugs are given to the patient as a complement to surgery or to replace surgical resection.
They recognize and neutralise tumour cells in the body whilst preserving surrounding normal cells. These treatments are therefore usually better tolerated than those used in classical chemotherapy. Treatment is also more comfortable since drugs can be taken orally.
However, not every tumour will respond to these drugs and there is a need to check diseased cells for specific alterations before prescribing. Technically, testing is performed from tiny fragments of tumour tissue obtained during the diagnostic procedure, through biopsies or aspiration.
Most tests consist of looking for specific mutations in known genes, which will predict how the patients will benefit from these new drugs. A limited number of such targeted drugs are on the market, but these have been shown to be effective in the treatment of certain breast, colorectal and lung cancers and also of a rare type of gastrointestinal tumour called GIST.
However, such testing requires high levels of technical expertise and is not currently widely available. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is one of the few UK centres where this testing is being performed routinely. Dr Phillipe Taniere and Brendan O’Sullivan have set up and developed a molecular pathology diagnostic service within the department of histopathology, offering a wide panel of assays with a rapid turn around time to any patient through the UK.
More than 1000 tumours have been tested in 2009, with consistent exponential growth in referral numbers. Of great help for oncologists and surgeons, the service rapidly provides all the information required to decide the best personalised management for every patient.
For more information, please visit www.uhb.nhs.uk
