Using Your Cancer to Treat Your Cancer

How Precision Cancer Care Adjusts the Recipe for Each Patient

Imagine your body is like a kitchen, and your genes are the recipes for how cells should grow and behave. Cancer happens when some recipes get messed up — maybe the oven’s left on too long or the wrong ingredients are used. The result? A dish (cell) that grows out of control.

Doctors now use precision medicine to read those recipes and figure out exactly what went wrong, so they can choose the right fix — like adjusting the ingredients to get the dish back on track. Cancer is like a recipe gone wrong — precision medicine helps doctors find the mistake and fix the dish. Specifically, precision medicine identifies the genomic makeup of your cancer and uses it to create the precise plan needed to fight your type of cancer.

Bayhealth Cancer Institute Hematologist and Medical Oncologist Vinay Edlukudige Keshava, MD, offers important points about how precision medicine is changing cancer care and helping doctors create treatment plans tailored to patients’ specific types of cancer.

Understanding the Need for Precision Cancer Care

What if there were a better way to choose and deliver cancer treatment — one that helps doctors and patients find the best option, even using medication customized for a patient? That’s the idea behind precision medicine. It personalizes cancer care by guiding the right tests and treatments for certain types of cancer. It can also help:

• Detect cancer early
• Accurately diagnose cancer type
• Select an appropriate cancer treatment
• Monitor treatment effectiveness
• Anticipate toxicities better to manage them
• Provide better clinical outcomes

Some doctors might not use the terms “precision or personalized medicine,” but rather genomic, genetic, DNA, biomarker or molecular testing to get a profile. All of these terms describe targeted approaches that some providers may use to plan your care.

How Precision Medicine Helps Treat Cancer

Doctors use precision medicine like adjusting a recipe — they run specific lab tests to figure out exactly what's wrong and create a treatment plan that's tailored to your unique situation. It's like tweaking the ingredients to get the dish just right. However, not all cancers are like a recipe that can be fixed with precision medicine yet — some cancers don’t have the right tests or the science to help adjust them in the same way. Some of the most common cancers using precision medicine to help guide treatment plans include:

• Lung cancer
• Breast cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Esophageal cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Melanoma
• Certain types of leukemia
• Certain types of lymphoma
• Thyroid cancer

If your cancer type has treatment options based on specific gene or protein changes, it's likely your cancer will be tested for them. You may need to ask your doctor if this testing was done. Testing typically occurs at diagnosis or if the cancer progresses or returns during treatment.

What To Ask Your Doctor about Precision Medicine

If you have already been diagnosed with cancer, here are some questions to ask your doctor about precision medicine:

• Does my cancer need special testing, such as molecular or mutation testing, to look at genes or other markers?
• What can these tests tell us about my cancer and how to treat it?
• Are there any clinical trials looking at targeted therapy for my type of cancer?
• Will I need more tests after this?
• How much will it cost, and will my insurance help pay for it?

If your family history or other factors put you at greater risk for cancer, here are some questions you might want to ask your doctor:

• Does my family history increase my cancer risk?
• Should I get genetic testing or talk to a genetic counselor?
• How much does it cost, and is it covered by insurance?
• What would the test results mean for me and my care?
• Would my family need to get tested too?

Turning the Tables on Cancer

Precision medicine is changing how cancer is treated by personalizing care based on your unique genetic makeup. Like adjusting a recipe, doctors use tests to pinpoint what's gone wrong with your cells and tailor treatments. While it's not yet available for all cancers, it offers hope for many types, helping doctors choose the most effective treatments. Whether you're at risk or already diagnosed, discussing precision medicine with your doctor can help guide your treatment plan and get you on the path to better health.

Visit Bayhealth.org/Cancer-Institute to learn more about the comprehensive oncology services available at the Bayhealth Cancer Institute.