What is Personalised Medicine for Cancer?

What exactly is personalised medicine and how does it work to make treatment more effective for different cancer types? DR VALERIE YANG, Senior Medical Oncologist at OncoCare Cancer Centre, answers a few of our questions on the topic.

What is personalised medicine and how is it different from traditional treatments for cancer?

Personalised medicine in cancer care refers to tailoring treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient’s cancer. Oncologists use information about the patient’s genes, proteins and other unique molecular characteristics (biomarkers) of the a tumour to guide decisions about prevention, diagnosis and treatment, rather than basing decisions solely on the cancer type (for example, “breast cancer”) and its particular stage.

Meanwhile, traditional treatments typically focus on where the cancer is located and what it looks like under a microscope. Treatments are chosen based on large population studies showing what works for the average person with that cancer type.