lystn

With the advent of next generation sequencing, we've gained the ability to test for nearly any and all genomic alterations – many or most of which are benign or of uncertain significance. And, believe it or not, we encounter many benign or uncertain alterations in tumor related genes. Targeted therapies have historically been developed with a relatively small number of alterations in mind. For example, KRAS testing focused originally only on codon 12 and 13 mutations. While, 90% of deleterious EGFR alterations in lung #cancer are either chromosome 19 deletion or the L858R mutation. Are we in danger of watering down the size of the effect in clinical trials for targeted therapies by trying to incorporate too many genomic alterations in their #design?