This volume comprehensively reviews oncology in the precision medicine era of personalized care, latest developments in the field, and indications and clinical trials for the treatment of cancer with targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and epigenetic modulators. It thoroughly addresses concerns of various types of cancers including cancers of the head and neck, lung, colon, esophagus, bladder, pancreas, and breast; melanoma; multiple myeloma; hepatocellular carcinoma; renal cell carcinoma; and sarcomas. It is organized and written in a format that is easy to follow for both clinicians and non-clinical scientists interested in personalized medicine. Chapters cover the identification of the clinical problem and summary of recent findings, tumor biology and heterogeneity, genomics, examples of simple and complex cases, biological pathways, future clinical trials, and financial considerations. Oncology in the Precision Medicine Era: Value-Based Medicine will serve as a useful resource for medical oncologists and healthcare providers tailoring medicine to the needs of the individual patient, from prevention and diagnosis to treatment and follow up.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common and potentially lethal gastrointestinal malignancy, but it is now at the forefront of modern oncology due to new discoveries. In recent years, the field of gastric cancer has been transformed by many notable developments in both the diagnostic area and the therapeutic strategies. The main aim of the text is to propose a comprehensive, state-of-the art review of this field, and will serve as a valuable resource for oncologists, pathologists, surgeons and researchers with an interest in gastric cancer. The first chapters will review the interplay between pathogens and especially H. pylori, inflammation, genomic instability, and tumorigenesis. Secondly, an exhaustive overview of the diagnosis of gastric cancer from a clinical/endoscopic and pathologic perspectives will be illustrated. Two specific chapters will deal with tissue and serum biomarkers with an important role in diagnosis as well as prognostic and predictive markers of response to specific therapy. A central section of the book will focus on treatment options available today for patients. Surgery is the cornerstone of treatment for gastric cancer; however, the prognosis of patients with locally advanced disease is still poor even after curative resection. Therefore, in order to improve the prognosis of patients, especially with advanced stage, a multimodal strategy is advisable and is thoroughly addressed in the appropriate section. With the advent of next-generation sequencing and new preclinical model technologies, the genomic landscape of gastric cancer has been delineated and molecular characterizations finalized to novel therapeutic targets of each molecular subtype have been identified. These advances are making it feasible to integrate clinical and phenotype-based diagnostic and therapeutic methods and are described in a dedicated section. The text will conclude with chapters focusing on the future direction of gastric cancer research in the precision medicine era: an in-depth analysis of non-coding RNAs and their role in gastric cancer, the impact of immunomodulation/immunotherapy and the perspectives of nano-medicine will be finally proposed to the audience. A brief review of the existing literature addressing the above mentioned topics will be present in each chapter. This text will serve as a useful resource for physicians and researchers dealing with, and interested in, this challenging malignancy. It will provide a concise yet comprehensive summary of the current status of the field that will help guide patient management and stimulate investigative efforts. All chapters will be written by experts in their fields and will include the most up to date scientific and clinical information.

Motivated by the explosion of molecular data on humans-particularly data associated with individual patients-and the sense that there are large, as-yet-untapped opportunities to use this data to improve health outcomes, Toward Precision Medicine explores the feasibility and need for "a new taxonomy of human disease based on molecular biology" and develops a potential framework for creating one. The book says that a new data network that integrates emerging research on the molecular makeup of diseases with clinical data on individual patients could drive the development of a more accurate classification of diseases and ultimately enhance diagnosis and treatment. The "new taxonomy" that emerges would define diseases by their underlying molecular causes and other factors in addition to their traditional physical signs and symptoms. The book adds that the new data network could also improve biomedical research by enabling scientists to access patients' information during treatment while still protecting their rights. This would allow the marriage of molecular research and clinical data at the point of care, as opposed to research information continuing to reside primarily in academia. Toward Precision Medicine notes that moving toward individualized medicine requires that researchers and health care providers have access to very large sets of health- and disease-related data linked to individual patients. These data are also critical for developing the information commons, the knowledge network of disease, and ultimately the new taxonomy.

Clinical Precision Medicine: A Primer offers clinicians, researchers and students a practical, up-to-date resource on precision medicine, its evolving technologies, and pathways towards clinical implementation. Early chapters address the fundamentals of molecular biology and gene regulation as they relate to precision medicine, as well as the foundations of heredity and epigenetics. Oncology, an early adopter of precision approaches, is considered with its relationship to genetic variation in drug metabolism, along with tumor immunology and the impact of DNA variation in clinical care. Contributions by Stephanie Kramer, a Clinical Genetic Counselor, also provide current information on prenatal diagnostics and adult genetics that highlight the critical role of genetic counselors in the era of precision medicine. - Includes applied discussions of chromosomes and chromosomal abnormalities, molecular genetics, epigenetic regulation, heredity, clinical genetics, pharmacogenomics and immunogenomics - Features chapter contributions from leaders in the field - Consolidates fundamental concepts and current practices of precision medicine in one convenient resource

A FRESH EXAMINATION OF PRECISION MEDICINE'S INCREASINGLY PROMINENT ROLE IN THE FIELD OF ONCOLOGY Precision medicine takes into account each patient's specific characteristics and requirements to arrive at treatment plans that are optimized towards the best possible outcome. As the field of oncology continues to advance, this tailored approach is becoming more and more prevalent, channelling data on genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and other areas into new and innovative methods of practice. Precision Medicine in Oncology draws together the essential research driving the field forward, providing oncology clinicians and trainees alike with an illuminating overview of the technology and thinking behind the breakthroughs currently being made. Topics covered include: Biologically-guided radiation therapy Informatics for precision medicine Molecular imaging Biomarkers for treatment assessment Big data Nanoplatforms Casting a spotlight on this emerging knowledge base and its impact upon the management of tumors, Precision Medicine in Oncology opens up new possibilities and ways of working – not only for oncologists, but also for molecular biologists, radiologists, medical geneticists, and others.

A hallmark of high-quality cancer care is the delivery of the right treatment to the right patient at the right time. Precision oncology therapies, which target specific genetic changes in a patient's cancer, are changing the nature of cancer treatment by allowing clinicians to select therapies that are most likely to benefit individual patients. In current clinical practice, oncologists are increasingly formulating cancer treatment plans using results from complex laboratory and imaging tests that characterize the molecular underpinnings of an individual patient's cancer. These molecular fingerprints can be quite complex and heterogeneous, even within a single patient. To enable these molecular tumor characterizations to effectively and safely inform cancer care, the cancer community is working to develop and validate multiparameter omics tests and imaging tests as well as software and computational methods for interpretation of the resulting datasets. To examine opportunities to improve cancer diagnosis and care in the new precision oncology era, the National Cancer Policy Forum developed a two-workshop series. The first workshop focused on patient access to expertise and technologies in oncologic imaging and pathology and was held in February 2018. The second workshop, conducted in collaboration with the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics, was held in October 2018 to examine the use of multidimensional data derived from patients with cancer, and the computational methods that analyze these data to inform cancer treatment decisions. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the second workshop.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. What does it mean to personalise cancer medicine? Drawing on an ethnographic study with cancer patients, carers and practitioners in the UK, this book traces their efforts to access and interpret novel genomic tests, information and treatments as they craft personal and collective futures. Exploring multiple experiences of new diagnostic tests, research programmes and trials, advocacy and experimental therapies, the authors chart the different kinds of care and work involved in efforts to personalise cancer medicine, as well as the ways in which benefits and opportunities are unevenly realised and distributed. Comparing these experiences with policy and professional accounts of the ‘big’ future of personalised healthcare, the authors show how hope and care are multi-faceted, contingent and, at times, frustrated in the everyday complexities of living and working with cancer.

The New Era of Precision Medicine: What it Means for Patients and the Future of Healthcare highlights aspects of precision medicine in different specialties and offers an understanding of how a biological background integrates into clinical guidelines, the therapeutic efficacy of interventions and disease prevention. The book explains how precision healthcare differs among countries, as well as how there is a collaboration among many labs to share resources and knowledge to advance the field across the globe. The book also discusses the cultural differences and cultural sensitivity that may be involved in the precision medicine approach. Finally, with regard to safety and quality outcomes, the book presents a range of current and possible future concerns related to those outcomes. Precision medicine is the new standard of quality healthcare delivery. It aims to optimize patient safety and clinical outcomes, enhance the efficacy of therapeutic interventions, and facilitate disease prevention, offering a way to customize patient care, decision-making, and clinical practice. - Highlights the characteristics of precision medicine in different areas - Offers an understanding of how a biological background integrates into clinical guidelines, the therapeutic efficacy of interventions, and disease prevention - Emphasizes how medicine has transformed from a "one-size-fits-all approach to personalized medicine influenced by individual characteristics - Introduces complex topics delivered in terms that target a broad range of audiences

Machine learning (ML) applications in medicine represent an emerging field of research with the potential to revolutionize the field of radiation oncology, in particular. With the era of big data, the utilization of machine learning algorithms in radiation oncology research is growing fast with applications including patient diagnosis and staging of cancer, treatment simulation, treatment planning, treatment delivery, quality assurance, and treatment response and outcome predictions. In this chapter, we provide the interested reader with an overview of the ongoing advances and cutting-edge applications of state-of-the-art ML techniques in radiation oncology process from the radiotherapy workflow perspective, starting from patient,Äôs diagnosis to follow-up. We present with discussion the areas where ML has presently been used and also areas where ML could be applied to improve the efficiency (i.e., optimizing and automating the clinical processes) and quality (i.e., potentials for decision-making support toward a practical application of precision medicine in radiation therapy) of patient care.

Progress and Challenges in Precision Medicine presents an insightful overview to the myriad factors of personalized and precision medicine. The availability of the human genome, large amounts of data on individual genetic variations, environmental interactions, influence of lifestyle, and cutting-edge tools and technologies for big-data analysis have led to the age of personalized and precision medicine. Bringing together a global range of experts on precision medicine, this book collects previously scattered information into one concise volume which covers the most important developments so far in precision medicine and also suggests the most likely avenues for future development. The book includes clinical information, informatics, public policy implications, and information on case studies. It is a useful reference and background work for students, researchers, and clinicians working in the biomedical and medical fields, as well as policymakers in the health sciences. - Provides an overview of the growing field of precision medicine - Contains chapters from geographically diverse experts in their field - Explores important aspects of precision medicine, including applications, ethics, and development