Chemotherapy and radiation failed to work on Erika Hurwitz's rare cancer of white blood cells. So her doctors offered her another option - a drug for melanoma. Within 4 weeks, her cancer was undetectable.
Mrs. Hurwitz is part of a new national effort in the United States to try and beat cancer basednot on what organ it startedin, but on what mutations drive its growth. There are now an increasing number of drugs that block mutations in cancer genes and can halt a tumour's growth.
The studies of this new method called basket studies because they lump together different kinds of cancer, are revolutionary.
Basket studies became possible when gene sequencing became so good and its price point reduced so doctors could look for 50, 60 cancer causing mutations in tumours. Also more and more drugs are being develped to target these mutations. In a way this is a leading edge of precision medicine that aims to target the drug to the patient.
But these are still early days. Not everyone in the basket studies is responding well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/health/fast-track-attacks-on-cancer-accelerate-hopes.html?_r=0
