You heard it here first..“Personalized medicine is the next frontier in cancer care,”Melanoma ..Jim Breitfeller

This is not about Melanoma it is about the "New Frontier in Medicine"

I can See this happening with Melanoma down the road.

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
ASCO Releases its First Provisional Clinical Opinion (PCO)


Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who are candidates for anti-EFGR therapy should have their tumors tested for KRAS gene mutations, according to ASCO’s first Provisional Clinical Opinion (PCO).

If a patient has a mutated form of the KRAS gene, the Society recommends against the use of anti-EFGR antibody therapy, based on recent studies indicating this treatment is only effective in patients with the normal (wild-type) form of the KRAS gene. It is estimated that 40% of patients with colon cancer have the KRAS mutation.

“Personalized medicine is the next frontier in cancer care,” said Richard L. Schilsky, MD, ASCO President. “Using KRAS testing to guide colorectal cancer treatment is a prime example of where cancer care is heading.”

“Basing cancer treatment on the unique genetic characteristics of the tumor or the individual with cancer will improve patient outcomes and help avoid unnecessary costs and side effects for patients who are unlikely to benefit,” Dr. Schilsky added.

PCOs are intended to offer timely preliminary clinical direction to oncologists following the publication or presentation of potentially practice-changing data from major studies. ASCO’s PCO on KRAS gene testing was given prior to the January 15-17, 2009 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, California. The Symposium was co-sponsored by ASCO, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO).

Among the 500 presentations was an important economic and scientific study that discussed the possibility of more than half a billion dollars in savings for the United States healthcare system. The study showed that routine testing for KRAS gene mutations in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer could save the U.S. health system up to $604 million per year by identifying who would benefit from the drug cetuximab.

Information on the PCO is currently available on ASCO.org, and the entire report will be published in the next issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

Jimmy B