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SUMMARY:“Personalized Medicine in Oncology: The Dutch experience” - Pr
 ofessor Jaap Verweij\, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute\, Weytemaweg 80\, 3105 
 CN Rotterdam\, The Netherlands
DTSTART:20140401T110000Z
DTEND:20140401T120000Z
UID:TALK47645@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mala Jayasundera
DESCRIPTION:The costs of cancer care have become a subject of continuous d
 ebate over the last decade\, for understandable but incorrect reasons focu
 sing on the costs of cancer drugs. Yet\, in a positive sense\, this challe
 nges us to also reconsider our current systems of cancer drug development.
  \n\nIn addition cancer care is increasingly becoming tailor made\, which 
 also creates a further challenge in the drug development process. \n\nSome
  recent experiences with molecular targeting have been extremely positive\
 , and it seems worthwhile to try to learn from these for future purposes. 
 These recent experiences suggest\, that if we have a sufficient understand
 ing of the essential tumor growth driving factor\, selective targeting mig
 ht enable a development short-cut and reduce the numbers of patients requi
 red to lead the new compound to marketing approval. The examples of imatin
 ib\, vemurafenib\, crizotinib\, and trastuzumab may help in reshaping the 
 development funnel for the future.\n\nHowever\, it should also be acknowle
 dged\, that the mentioned successes were achieved in situations with limit
 ed molecular abnormalities in cancer systems. The majority of our patients
  are facing a disease that is driven by multiple factors\, rather than a s
 ingle factor. And the evolution of disease is also paralleled by further g
 enomic changes in either that single factor or in multiple factors\, incre
 asing the complexity of targeting as well as drug development. A single bi
 opsy of the primary tumor that was removed long ago\, may not suffice to g
 uide treatment decisions for a patient that approaches for treatment of me
 tastatic disease many years later. \n\nAll of these issues\, including the
  dosing question that will not be discussed\, have prompted us to set up t
 he Center for Personalized Cancer Treatment (CPCT)\, a collaboration betwe
 en Erasmus MC Cancer Institute\, the University Medical Center Utrecht\, a
 nd the Dutch Cancer Institute\, with the aim to develop a system for both 
 personalized drug development as well as personalized drug treatment. The 
 center started late 2012\, with harmonized contracts\, protocols and proce
 dures and a centralized DNA analysis.  Deliberately the first studies were
  kept as simple as possible to be able to remove potential bugs from the s
 ystem prior to entering the more complex study arena. The first years’ e
 xperience will be discussed. In view of the current achievements\, we are 
 considering to now rapidly extend participation to the other university ho
 spitals in the Netherlands\, therewith establishing a unique network with 
 access to the vast majority of Dutch cancer patients.\n
LOCATION:CRI Lecture Theatre\, Cambridge Research Institute
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