Enrollment barriers to secure patients for genomically matched trials still challenge the discovery for molecular cancer therapies; however , help may be on the way. Only a few patients who have gene alterations are selected to participate in genomically matched trials. Enrollments for these trials are difficult and results differ based upon the variety of tumor and institution performing the study.

In a recent study performed by MD Anderson, the results revealed “Overall, 39% of the patients had at least one mutation in potentially actionable genes, the most common of which were TP53 (30.82%), PIK3CA (12.95%), KRAS (11.3%) and BRAF (7%). An additional 21% of patients had a somatic mutation that was presumed not actionable. However, only 11% of the patients with potentially actionable gene mutations went on genotype-matched trials that target those alterations, 7% of patients were treated on a genotype-selected trial that required a mutation for eligibility and 4% were treated on a genotype-relevant trial without biomarker selection.”

MD Anderson used this data to develop a system to assist physician identification regarding when genome tests have been conducted along with a list of each genotype-matched trials. To read more on this topic posted on Healio by Anthony SanFilippo, click here.