Invited Speaker Presentation 29th Lorne Cancer Conference 2017

The application of integrative sequencing for precision oncology (#28)

Arul Chinnaiyan 1
  1. University of Michigan Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Studies of the genomic landscape of human cancers have demonstrated that most solid cancers have a multitude of mutations, a subset of which may be “actionable” with current drugs. Thus, the personalization of therapy for cancer will require molecular characterization of unique and shared genetic aberrations. Patients who have advanced/refractory cancer and are candidates for clinical trials could potentially benefit by identifying eligibility for “targeted” drugs based on the “actionable” genes in their specific tumor. Growing technological advances in genomic sequencing has now made it possible to consider the use of sequence data in a clinical setting. MI-ONCOSEQ initiative brings together expertise at the University of Michigan including clinical oncology, cancer genetics, bioinformatics, clinical pathology, social and behavioral sciences, and bioethics in order to implement clinical cancer sequencing. Our study identifies patients with advanced or refractory cancers that are eligible for clinical trials, consent them to the study, obtain biospecimens (tumor tissue, germline tissue) and store clinical data. The clinical sequencing team processes biospecimens, performs comprehensive sequencing and analysis of tumors to identify point mutations, copy number changes, rearrangements/gene fusions, and aberrant gene expression. Finally, a multi-disciplinary Precision Medicine Tumor Board deliberates on return of actionable or incidental genomic results.