Personalized medicine and oncology practice guidel... [J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2011] - PubMed result

J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2011 Jan;9(1):13-25.
Personalized medicine and oncology practice guidelines: a case study of contemporary biomarkers in colorectal cancer.

Kelley RK, Van Bebber SL, Phillips KA, Venook AP.

From the aDepartment of Medicine, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; bUCSF Center for Translational and Policy Research on Personalized Medicine (TRANSPERS); cDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco; and dPhilip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, San Francisco, California.


Abstract

Predictive and prognostic biomarkers offer a potential means to personalize cancer medicine, although many reach the market-place before they have been validated, and their adoption is often hindered by variable clinical evidence. Because of this variability in supporting evidence, clinical practice guidelines formulated by panels of subspecialty experts may be particularly important in guiding stakeholders' acceptance and use of new personalized medicine biomarker tests and other nascent technologies. This article provides a structured review of the clinical evidence supporting 4 contemporary biomarker tests in colorectal cancer: K-ras and B-raf mutation analyses, mismatch repair protein testing, and the Oncotype DX Colon Cancer Assay. All 4 tests have been evaluated for guideline inclusion by the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Colon Cancer. This case study shows significant variability in the level of clinical evidence associated with these tests. In the cases of B-raf and mismatch repair protein testing, the available evidence is also inconsistent as it pertains to the specific NCCN Guideline recommendation. Based on this uncertainty in the evidence base, the authors conclude that expert clinical judgment, experience, and consensus may be more heavily weighted than published clinical trial data in the evaluation of new personalized medicine biomarker tests. Potential implications of this conclusion and future directions for research are discussed.

PMID: 21233242 [PubMed - in process]
Personalized medicine and oncology practice guidel... [J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2011] - PubMed result