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Personalized test tracks cancer relapse

Nature volume 545, pages 417–418 (2017)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 July 2017

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Genomic analysis of lung-tumour evolution has been used to create personalized blood tests that enable successful clinical monitoring for early signs of cancer relapse — a promising step on the road to precision medicine. See Article p.446

The treatment of tumours that have spread, through a process called metastasis, to occupy locations beyond their primary site is usually decided on by the visual inspection of cells using an approach called histology, or from analysis of DNA sequences in a tumour fragment. Such tumour fragments are obtained either from what is thought to be the tumour's primary site or from its most accessible site. However, this approach does not accurately capture the intrinsic genetic heterogeneity of these malignancies, nor the ability of cancer genomes to evolve dynamically over time. This can mean that people with cancer can receive multiple types of therapy, often lasting years, if not decades, on the basis of what might be an outdated molecular analysis of their disease. Two articles, one on page 446 by Abbosh et al.1 and the other in The New England Journal of Medicine by Jamal-Hanjani et al.2, describe a clinical study that aimed to create a detailed genetic profile tracking how lung tumours evolve over time in single individuals. The results enabled Abbosh and colleagues to use patient-specific information to create a test that can identify whether relapse has occurred after surgical tumour removal.

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Figure 1: Monitoring lung-cancer evolution to detect early relapse after surgery.

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  • 20 July 2017

    An earlier version of this article spelled the ERBB2 gene name incorrectly.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, University of Torino, 10060 Candiolo, Italy

    Alberto Bardelli

  2. Candiolo Cancer Institute-FPO, IRCCS,

    Alberto Bardelli

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  1. Alberto Bardelli
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Correspondence to Alberto Bardelli.

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Bardelli, A. Personalized test tracks cancer relapse. Nature 545, 417–418 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/545417a

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