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Personalized Cancer Treatments Are Coming
- Mari Maeda
- Jan 17, 2020
- 1 min read
Updated: Jan 19, 2020
New tests are starting to be available to optimize therapies for canine patients. After all, each dog's cancer is unique. A drug that works for one dog may not necessarily work for another because their cancer cells are different. So we need to get away from today's one-size-fits-all therapeutics to more personalized treatments.
Our blog series will start this weekend by focusing on new personalized medicine treatments. (It's also sometimes called precision medicine). Precision medicine is widely available to human cancer patients but was introduced to our pets only recently. We'll be describing several companies with new diagnostic tests to help choose best drugs for canine patients. We'll also be sharing information about a new personalized immunotherapy clinical trial.
Our hope is that this information will help pet owners choose the best options for their pets. We also hope that these trials will gather sufficient data and scientific evidence for safety and efficacy, and the treatments will ultimately become widely available to pet parents.
It's fascinating to see how far personalized medicine has come, especially in the realm of cancer treatment. I remember years ago, the idea of tailoring therapy to an individual's specific genetic makeup felt like something out of science fiction. My understanding of cancer treatment was quite broad, almost one-size-fits-all in my mind, with broad-stroke therapies like chemotherapy and radiation being the primary tools https://www.afr.com/ The concept that we could now analyze a tumor's unique signature and then design a drug or treatment to target *only* those specific cancer cells, leaving healthy cells largely untouched, is truly revolutionary. It brings so much hope. I've always wondered if there would be significant differences in effectiveness between individuals undergoing the same treatment, and…
Just as in human medicine, two dogs with similar tumors may respond very differently to the same treatment. That makes precision-based testing a logical Trees Hate You and potentially life-changing advancement for canine patients.
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