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clinical oncology practice through companion molecular diagnostics for personal-
ized therapy, the increasing amount of global quantitative data from both healthy
and diseased states is shaping up a transformational paradigm in medicine that is
termed ‘predictive’, ‘preventive’, ‘personalized’, and ‘participatory’ (P4) medicine,
which requires new scientifi c and organizational strategies to translate this approach
to the healthcare system (Tian et al. 2012 ).
Impact of Molecular Diagnostics on the Management
of Cancer
Molecular diagnostics infl uences cancer management in several ways that lend to
personalization (Table 10.2 ). These technologies are enabling the classifi cation of
cancer based on molecular profi les as a basis for more effective personalized thera-
pies. Various tests have been used to predict response to treatment and prognosis.
Table 10.2 Impact of molecular diagnostics
on the management of cancer
Classifi cation of cancer
Analysis of RNA splicing events in cancer
Cancer classifi cation using microarrays
Cancer stratifi cation based on methylation markers
Characteristic of circulating cancer cells
eTag assay system for cancer biomarkers
Gene expression profi ling
Risk assessment and prognosis
Cancer prognosis
Detection of mutations for risk assessment and prevention
Prediction of response to treatment
Ex Vivo Testing of Tumor Biopsy for Chemotherapy Sensitivity
Response to Treatment Proteomic Analysis of Tumor Biopsies to Predict
Prediction of response to radiation therapy
Serum Nucleosomes as Indicators of Sensitivity to Chemotherapy
Testing microsatellite-instability for response to chemotherapy
Diagnostics as guide to therapeutics
Diagnostics for detection of minimal residual disease
Detection of resistance to chemotherapy
Molecular diagnostics combined with cancer therapeutics
Drug discovery and development
Design of future cancer therapies
Screening for personalized anticancer drugs
Pharmacogenomic tests for stratifi cation of clinical trials
© Jain PharmaBiotech
10 Personalized Therapy of Cancer