In addition to pioneering a potentially important therapy for treatment-resistant metastatic breast cancer, the study highlights the importance of gene sequencing metastatic tumors, said Nikhil Wagle, MD, Dr. Nayar’s colleague and deputy director of the Center for Cancer Precision Medicine at Dana-Farber.
“Our study highlights how important it is to profile resistant metastatic tumors since these tumors may harbor targetable mechanisms of resistance that were not present in the original tumor biopsy,” Dr. Wagle noted in a press statement. “Repeated sequencing of tumors can pinpoint new genetic changes that cause resistance to therapies. This in turn can enable physicians to personalize therapy depending on the specific genetic changes in a patient’s tumor over time.”
The study was supported by the Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the Dana-Farber Cancer Center, and a number of other private funders. Dr. Wagle is a stockholder in Foundation Medicine. Dr. Nayar had no financial disclosure.
SOURCE: Nayer U et al. AACR 2018, Abstract 4952