Predictive Markers of Efficacy

Steven Sorscher

Department of Oncology, Wake Forest School of Medicine One Medical Center Blvd, USA

^*Correspondance to: Steven Sorscher 

 PDF  Full Text Review Article | Open Access

Abstract:

Cancer treatments have long relied on predictive markers of efficacy. Once a chemotherapy drug or regimen is shown to be efficacious for a particular tumor type, that becomes the predictive marker of efficacy. Hormone receptor positivity of breast cancer remains the predictive marker for responsive to anti-estrogen receptor therapy.We have now entered firmly into the age of precision cancer therapy. Next generation sequencing (NGS) of solid tumors or liquid biopsies (cell-free DNA) has taken the use of predictive markers of efficacy a step further by attempting to identify so-called actionable molecular abnormalities that are beginning to replace the tissue of origin as the primary consideration in helping patients choose therapies for many examples of metastatic cancer.Ideally, clinical studies are completed where eligible patients have tumors characterized by the presumptive predictive marker and demonstrate improved efficacy in those patients receiving the targeting therapy versus those not receiving the targeting therapy. Without clinical trials that specifically address the benefit or lack of benefit for a particular therapy, redefining the definition of a predictive marker can be problematic. In this article, examples of predictive markers of efficacy now routinely relied upon in advising patients with lung cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer are used to illustrate the challenges involved in choosing and later redefining predictive markers of efficacy.

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Cite the Article:

Sorscher S. Predictive Markers of Efficacy. Clin Oncol. 2017; 2: 1374.