Already today about one third of lung cancers can be tackled with an approach guided by precision medicine: that is, by researching molecular targets for which targeted drugs have been developed. An important opportunity for patients, which has led to a higher efficacy of treatments and a better tolerability to treatments, guaranteeing long life expectancy for a disease that up to 15 years ago had a decidedly poor prognosis. How can all patients, regardless of where they live and are treated, be given the opportunity to have access to innovative and effective therapies such as molecularly targeted therapies? A ‘help’ comes from Atlas (https://biomarkersatlas.com/), the first Italian database that systematizes information relating to mutations involving molecular alterations that are positive biomarkers of response to treatment in lung cancer.
With the Atlas platform, increasingly targeted lung cancer therapy (VIDEO)
Created by Medica editoria and Diffusione scientific, under the patronage of Walce Onlus, Atlas is a useful tool for healthcare professionals, who can understand the clinical value of each individual mutation and, consequently, for patients who can benefit from the most suitable treatments. to their condition.
“The world of precision oncology and molecular profiling is becoming more and more enriching, the amount of information to be managed is growing rapidly, with new data often in small subgroups of patients and not known to all oncologists, especially when it comes to of professionals not specifically dedicated to lung cancer. A platform such as Atlas, which collects information on known and lesser known molecular alterations, allows clinicians, pathologists and molecular biologists to have access to aggregate information provided by other Italian centers quickly and easily “, explains Silvia Novello, full professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Turin and member of the scientific board of the platform.
Many molecular alterations that are identified today and that will be described in the near future – a note recalls – will be rare in percentage terms, even in a disease with such a high incidence as lung cancer, which in 2020 registered 41 thousand new diagnoses. Precisely on these less frequent alterations it is very important that those who make the diagnosis and those who prescribe the therapy can compare themselves with other centers and can do it quickly and easily. “Our database also provides clinical information associated with specific mutations and allows the doctor to direct the patient towards experiments suitable for that type of tumor”, underlines Giancarlo Troncone, full professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Naples Federico II, who is also on the scientific board of the project. “This turns out to be a concrete benefit for patients”.
Today I am more than 3,500 data entered into the platform deriving from the first 7 cancer centers involved which, by the end of 2022, will increase to more than 20, ensuring good coverage of the national territory. “Ours is an inclusive project and anyone who wants to join is welcome. In this way we are trying to reconstruct the picture of the prevalence of lung cancer mutations, filling a knowledge gap at the national level. In other European countries, such as France, databases similar to ours are active which also allow us to understand how widespread genomic profiling techniques are. Since, on the other hand, we do not yet have in Italy ”, continues Troncone.
The platform therefore has an important research value and has already led to scientific publications in indexed journals. “Our system was developed following the international nomenclature criteria so the data can be compared with those of other nations for scientific purposes, always respecting the privacy of patients. Some of the mutations are rare and only by reaching a significant number of cases can we obtain relevant indications ”, explains Umberto Malapelle, head of the predictive molecular pathology laboratory at the Federico II University of Naples and member of the scientific board of Atlas. Today the platform deals with lung cancer, but in the future it could expand and collect data relating to other solid tumors: the ambition is in fact to be able to make a difference in any case in which the presence of DNA alterations makes the patient eligible. to treatment with molecularly targeted drugs “.