Genomic Profiling for Lung Cancer: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Genomic profiling has gained popularity in medical oncology. Using NextGen platforms, protein coding regions of human tumors known as exomes can be examined for mutations, amplifications, deletions, splice variants and SNPs. In select tumors the results can be extremely helpful. Among the best examples are adenocarcinomas of the lung where EGFr, ALK and ROS-1 mutations, deletions and/or re-arrangements identified by DNA analysis can guide the selection of “targeted agents” like Erlotinib and Crizotinib.

An article published in May 2014 issue of JAMA reported results using probes for 10 “oncogenic driver” mutations in lung cancer patients. They screened for at least one gene in 1,007 patients and all 10 genes in 733. The most common was k-ras at 25%, followed by EGFR in 17% and ALK in 8%. The incidence then fell off with other EGFr mutations in 4%, B-raf mutations in 2%, with the remaining mutations each found in less than 1%.

Median survival at 3.5 vs 2.4 years was improved for patients who received treatments guided by the findings (Kris MG et al, Using multiplex assays of oncogenic drivers in lung cancers to select targeted drugs. JAMA, May 2014). Do these results indicate that genomic analyses should be used for treatment selection in all patients? Yes and no.

Noteworthy is the fact that 28% of the patients had driver mutations in one of three genes, EGFr, HER2 or ALK. All three of these mutations have commercially available chemotherapeutic agents in the form of Erlotinib, Afatinib and Crizotinib. Response rates of 50% or higher, with many patients enjoying durable benefits have been observed. Furthermore, patients with EGFr mutations are often younger, female and non-smokers whose tumors often respond better to both targeted and non-targeted therapies. These factors would explain in part the good survival numbers reported in the JAMA article. Today, a large number of commercial laboratories offer these tests as part of standard panels. And, like k-ras mutations in colon cancer or BCR-abl in CML (the target of Gleevec), the arguments in favor of the use of these analyses is strong.

Non-small cell lung cancer

But what of the NSCLC patients for whom no clear identifiable driver can be found? What of the 25% with k-ras mutations for whom no drug exists? What of those with complex mutational findings? And finally what of those patients whose tumors are driven by normal genes functioning abnormally? In these patients no mutations exists at all. How best do we manage these patients?

I was reminded of this question as I reviewed a genomic analysis reported to one of my colleagues. He had submitted a tissue block to an east coast commercial lab when one of his lung cancer patients relapsed. The results revealed mutations in EGFr L858R & T790M, ERBB4, HGF, JAK2, PTEN, STK11, CCNE1, CDKN2A/B, MYC, MLL2 W2006, NFKB1A, and NKX2-1. With a tumor literally bristling with potential targets, what is a clinician to do? How do we take over a dozen genetically identified targets and turn them into effective treatment strategies? In this instance, too much information can be every bit as paralyzing as too little.

Our preferred approach is to examine the small molecule inhibitors that target each of the identified aberrancies in our laboratory platform. We prefer to drill down to the next level of certainty e.g. cellular function. After all, the presence of a target does not a response make.

In this patient I would conduct a biopsy. This would enable us to examine the drugs and combinations that are active against the targets. A “hit” by the EVA-PCD assay would then isolate the “drivers” from the “passengers” and enable the clinician to intelligently select effective treatments. Combining genomic analyses with functional profiling (phenotypic analyses) provides the opportunity to turn speculative observations into actionable events.

This is the essence of Rational Therapeutics.

New Diagnostic Test for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer

I was invited to discuss a new diagnostic test for the early detection of lung cancer by Gerri Willis of Fox Business News’ Willis Report.

An Italian clinical study presented at the September 2014 European Respiratory Society described 82 patients with abnormal chest x-rays. Patients breathed into a machine that measured the temperature of the exhaled air. Forty of the patients ultimately proved to have cancer and 42 did not, as confirmed by subsequent biopsy. They found a correlation between the temperature of the exhaled breath and presence of lung cancer. They also found that long term smokers had higher breath temperatures, as did those with higher stage disease.

For a variety of reasons, a test as simple as breath temperature seems unlikely to be highly specific. After all, the temperature of the exhaled breath could reflect infection, inflammation, or even activity level, as vigorous exercise can raise the body’s core temperature. Nonetheless, the fact that there is any correlation at all is of interest.

What might underlie these findings? Accepting the shortfalls of this small study, it is an interesting point of discussion. First, cancer is a hyper metabolic state. Cancers consume increased quantities of glucose, proteins, and lipids. PET scans measure these phenomena every day. Second, cancer is associated with hyper vascularity. Up-regulation of VEGF could cause hyperemia (increased capillary blood flow) in the airways of lung cancer patients, resulting in the finding. Finally, cancer, in and of itself, is an inflammatory state. Inflammation reflects increased metabolic activity that could manifest as a whole body change in basal temperature.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the US, constituting 27% of all cancer deaths. Despite the over 224,000 new diagnoses and 160,000 deaths, the five-year survival for lung cancer today at 17% has not changed in several decades. Nonetheless patients who are detected early (Stage I) have a greater than 50% five-year survival.

We know from the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial published in 2010, that early detection by CT scans can reduce mortality from this disease by 20%. In the cancer literature, that is huge. The problem is that screening CTs are comparatively expensive, inconvenient, expose patients to radiation and are themselves fraught with false positives and false negatives. Furthermore, it is estimated that that broad application of spiral CT’s could cost over $9 billion a year. Thus, simple, non-invasive screening techniques are sorely needed.

The use of exhaled breath to diagnose cancers has been under in development for decades. Recently, investigators from The Cleveland Clinic and others from Israel have reported good results with a microchip that measures the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the breath and provides a colorimetric score. With several hundred patients the receiver-operating curves (ROC, a technique that gauges the sensitivity and specificity of a test) in the range of 0.85 (1.0 is perfect) are quite favorable. Although these techniques have not yet gained broad application, they are extremely interesting from the standpoint of what it is they are actually measuring.

For decades, the principal focus of scientific exploration in cancer has been genomic. Investigators at Boston University and others at MD Anderson in Texas have used genomic and methylation status of oro-and naso-pharyngeal swabs to identify the earliest hallmarks of malignant transformation. To the contrary, the breath tests described above measure phenomena that fall more in the realm of metabolomics. After all, these are measures of cellular biochemical reactions and identify the transformed state at a metabolic level.

Though still in its infancy, metabolomics reflects the most appealing of all cancer analyses. Examining cancer for what it is, rather than how it came to be, uses biochemistry, enzymology and quantitative analyses. These profile the tumor at the level of cellular function. Like the platforms that I utilize (EVA-PCD), these metabolic analyses examine the tumor phenotype.

I applaud these Italian investigators for using a functional approach to cancer biology. This is a highly productive direction and fertile ground for future research. Will breath temperature measurement prove sensitive and specific enough to diagnose cancer at early stage? It is much too early to say, but at least for now, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

The Changing Landscape in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

In October 2012, we published a study of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose treatment was guided by EVA-PCD laboratory analysis. The trial selected drugs from FDA approved, compendium listed chemotherapies and every patient underwent a surgical biopsy under an IRB-approved protocol to provide tissue for analysis.

The EVA-PCD patients achieved an objective response rate of 64.5 percent (2-fold higher than national average, P < 0.0015) and median overall survival of 21.3 months (nearly 2-fold longer than the national average of 12.5 months).

Non-small cell lung cancer

The concept of conducting biopsies in patients with metastatic NSCLC was not only novel in 2004, it was downright heretical. Physicians argued forcefully that surgical procedures should not be undertaken in metastatic disease fearing risks and morbidity. Other physicians were convinced that drug selection could not possibly improve outcomes over those achieved with well-established NCCN guidelines. One oncologist went so far as to demand a formal inquiry. When the hospital was forced to convene an investigation, it was the co-investigators on the IRB approved protocol and the successfully treated patients who ultimately rebuffed this physician’s attempt to stifle our work.

With the publication of our statistically superior results and many of our patients surviving more than 5 years, we felt vindicated but remain a bit battle scarred.

I was amused when one of my study co-authors (RS) recently forwarded a paper authored at the University of California at Davis about surgical biopsies and tumor molecular profiling published by The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. This single institution study of twenty-five patients with metastatic NSCLC reported their experience-taking patients with metastatic disease to surgical biopsy for the express purpose of selecting therapy. Sixty four percent were video assisted thoracic (VATS) wedge biopsies, 16 percent pleural biopsies, 8 percent mediastinoscopies, 12 percent supraclavicular biopsies and 8 percent rib/chest wall resections. Tissues were submitted to a commercial laboratory in Los Angeles for genomic profiling.

The authors enthusiastically described their success conducting surgical procedures to procure tissue for laboratory analysis. Gone was the anxiety surrounding the risk of surgical morbidity. Gone were the concerns regarding departure from “standard” treatment. In their place were compelling arguments that recapitulated the very points that we had articulated ten years earlier in our protocol study. While the platforms may differ, the intent, purpose and surgical techniques applied for tissue procurement were exactly the same.

What the Cooke study did not describe was the response rate for patients who received “directed therapy.” Instead they provide the percent of patients with “potentially targetable” findings (76 percent) and the percent that had a “change in strategy” (56 percent) as well as those that qualified for therapeutic trials (40 percent). Though, laudable, changing strategies and qualifying for studies does not equal clinical responsiveness. One need only examine the number of people who are “potential winners” at Black Jack or those who “change their strategies” (by changing tables/dealers for example) or, for that matter, those who qualify for “high roller status” to understand the limited practical utility of these characterizations.

Nonetheless, the publication of this study from UC Davis provides a landmark in personalized NSCLC care. It is no longer possible for oncologists to decry the use of surgical biopsies for the identification of active treatments.

As none of the patients in this study signed informed consents for biopsy, we can only conclude that the most august institutions in the US now view such procedures as appropriate for the greater good of their patients. Thus, we are witness to the establishment of a new paradigm in cancer medicine. Surgical biopsies in the service of better treatment are warranted, supported and recommended. Whatever platform, functional or genomic, patient-directed therapy is the new normal and the landscape of lung cancer management has changed for the better.

The Meaning of Meaningful Improvement in Lung Cancer

When asked to define what constituted pornography in his 1964 Supreme Court decision (Jacobellis versus Ohio 1964) Justice Potter Stewart stated, “I know it when I see it.” When I reviewed an article on the changing landscape of clinical trials in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Shifting patterns in the interpretation of phase 3 clinical trial outcomes in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: The bar is dropping, Sacher A. G. et al, J Clin Oncol May 10, 2014), Justice Stewart came to mind.

The authors selected 203 NSCLC trials from a total of 245 studies conducted between 1980 and 2010. They compared how often the studies met their endpoints with how often the study authors’ called the results “positive.” Among the findings, it seems that earlier studies (before the year 2000) were geared for overall survival, while later studies (after 2000) overwhelmingly favored progression free survival. Although patient survivals changed little, the number of trials reported as successful increased dramatically.

Non-small cell lung cancer

Progression-free survival measures how long it takes for a patient to fail treatment. That is, for the disease to worsen on therapy. Its use increased after 2000 when Docetaxel, for the first time, provided a survival advantage in recurrent disease.

The FDA’s willingness to accept progression-free survival for drug approval was originally based on their expectation that the benefit would be “substantial and robust” but they did not define the term. One group has suggested that improvements should be of the magnitude of 50 percent. Another went even further suggesting a doubling of the survival advantage.

Unfortunately, the trend has been just the opposite. Trials from the 1980s on average gave a 3.9 month improvement, which fell to a meager 0.9 months after 2000.

What are patients and their physicians to make of these trends? First, the large clinical trials, that are so common today, are much more likely to achieve significance. The troubling corollary is that statistical significance is not the same as clinical relevance. The “publish or perish” climate, combined with the skyrocketing cost of drug development has placed inordinate demands upon investigators and their sponsors to achieve “positive results.” Fearing failure, many pharmaceutical companies sponsor “safe” trials that provide incremental advances but few breakthroughs.

Meaningful advances in oncology are generally quite evident. The first use of Interferon alpha for the treatment of hairy cell leukemia provided a response rate of 100 percent and earned a lead article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) with only seven patients!

Similarly the 57 percent response rate for Crizotinib in ALK positive lung cancer required only 82 patients for a place in the NEJM. Unfortunately, the failure of contemporary investigators to identify more “paradigm changing therapies” has forced many to lower the bar.

The clear solution to the problem is the better selection of candidates for therapy. Despite advances in molecular biopsy a paucity of truly effective companion diagnostics exist. Outside of EGFR, ALK, and ROS-1, it is anybody’s guess how to manage the vast majority of non-small cell lung cancer patients.

While we expand our armamentarium and develop better companion diagnostics, today we can apply measures of cellular response (as found in an EVA-PCD assay)
that capture all of operative mechanisms of sensitivity for all classes of drugs. While it is not always possible to know why a patient will respond, it is possible to know that they will respond. In the words of Judge Stewart, when it comes to a responsive lung cancer patient “I know it when I see it.”

Outliving Hospice

For those of you who have read my book Outliving Cancer you will recognize the chapter entitled “Outliving Hospice.” It is the description of one of my lung cancer patients.

The saga began in 2005, when this gentleman with metastatic lung cancer under the care of the Veteran’s Administration in Los Angeles presented to our group requesting a biopsy for an EVA-PCD assay to select therapy. Diagnosed some months earlier his lung cancer had progressed following first line platinum-based chemotherapy. He was deemed untreatable and placed on hospice.

At his request, one of our surgical colleagues conducted a biopsy and identified a treatment combination borrowed from work done some years earlier by Japanese investigators. It worked perfectly for a year allowing him to return to a normal life.

At year two however, he relapsed. At that point, we confronted a dilemma – would we accept the inevitability of his progressive disease, fold our tent, and allow the patient to return to hospice care; or conduct yet another biopsy to determine the next line of therapy? If you have read the book, then you know how the story plays out. The new biopsy revealed the unexpected finding that the tumor had completely clocked around to an EGFR-driven cancer, highly sensitive to erlotinib (Tarceva). Placed upon oral Tarceva, he has been in remission ever since.

When I saw Rick, two weeks ago at our six month routine follow up he provided a copy of his February 2014 PET/CT scans which, once again, revealed no evidence of progressive disease. With the exception of the skin rashes associated with the therapy, he maintains a completely normal life. During our discussion he apprised me of an interesting fact. His survival, now approaching 10 years, according to him, constitutes not only the longest survivorship for any patient under the care of the Los Angeles VA, nor any patient under the care of the VA in California, no, he is the longest surviving actively treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer under the care of the Veteran’s Administration. Period! While I cannot, with certainty, vouch for this fact, I am quite certain that he is among the best outcomes that I have seen.

There are several points to be gleaned. The first is that every patient deserves the best possible outcome. The second is that hospice care is in the eye of the beholder. The third is that patients must take charge of their own care and demand the best possible interventions available. As an aside, you might imagine that a federal agency responsible for the costly care of tens of thousands of lung cancer patients every year would pay attention to results like Rick’s. Might there be other patients who could benefit from Ex-Vivo Analysis for the correct selection of chemotherapeutics?  One can only wonder.

Garlic – The Common Man’s Cure All

A recent study published in the Journal of Cancer Prevention Research by investigators in China compared the outcome of patients with lung cancer who consumed fresh garlic against those who did not. In the study of 1,424 lung cancer patients there was a 44 percent reduction of the risk of lung cancer for non-smokers.  Even among smoking patients the risk of lung cancer was reduced by 30 percent.

The findings of the study are consistent with a treatise that I published several years ago on garlic (Garlic: Medicinal Food or Nutritious Medicine? Robert A. Nagourney, Journal of Medicinal Food, 1998). In this study, I examined the history of garlic, as well as its chemistry and its medicinal properties. In addition to its anti-cancer properties, garlic is antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of blood clots, lowers cholesterol and may serve as an anti-aging nutrient.

Where the recent study struck chord was its concordance with my strong recommendation from that 1998 article that we consume fresh garlic over the other preparations. The aged garlic extracts, dried garlic and garlic oil preparations lack the most important chemical constituent of all – allicin. Allicin, also known diallyl disulphide oxide (2-propanethiol sufinate) imparts the characteristic odor to garlic. It is only formed when the precursor alliin is enzymatically converted to the allicin via the action of the enzyme alliinase. Once allicin is exposed to excess heat or oxygen it undergoes a variety of conversions that lead to diallyl sulfone as well the diallyl di, tri, and tetra sulfides.

These compounds, though biologically active, do not carry the potency of allicin. It is for this reason that I have, over the past two decades, urged my patients, family and friends to consume fresh garlic as a foodstuff. Indeed as I write in my book, Outliving Cancer, our family consumes the equivalent 2 – 3 liters of fresh garlic a month.

The history of garlic as a medicinal is indeed rich. And it was Gallen, in 130 AD, who described it as “Theriacum rusticorum” (the common man’s cure all). I am pleased that two millennia later Chinese cancer researchers have provided additional data to support his prescient observation.

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month

With November designated as Lung Cancer awareness month we have the opportunity to focus national attention on this disease, the leading cause of cancer death in America.

It may come as a surprise to many that lung cancer causes more deaths than prostate, breast and colorectal cancer combined. Lung cancer is the big kahuna. And up until the last several years, no one seemed to be paying much attention. It may be that people considered lung cancer a disease associated with cigarette smoking and therefore, in some way, the individual victim’s fault. However, we are now witness to a changing biology wherein the predominant histology of lung cancer, previously squamous cell, has transitioned to adenocarcinoma.

While the incidence in males has fallen, the incidence in females has risen. Strikingly, the incidence of lung cancer in non-smokers is rapidly climbing. Indeed, up to 20 percent of lung cancers today do not appear to be directly related to cigarettes or known exposures at all.

Our recent publication of a clinical trial in lung cancer patients was highly instructive. First, we were able to double the response rate and nearly double the survival through functional profiling (EVA-PCD®).

Second, there was no “right” treatment for patients. Different treatment combinations worked best for each patient with no single combination working for all.

Third, many patients did well with first line targeted agents. In fact, several long-term survivors have never received any form of cytotoxic chemotherapy, despite widely metastatic disease at presentation.

Several questions remain. Among them, the role of the repeat biopsies in patients with recurrent disease.  Several patients under my care have undergone additional biopsies each time a recurrence was documented with the new assay findings guiding us to a different treatment regimen. It is not impossible to imagine a day when cancer treatments will be modified and changed the way contemporary internists switch antihypertensives or cholesterol lowering drugs. That is, lung cancer like these maladies is becoming a chronic disease.

With several patients out over five years this strategy has served us well in select cases. A second issue surrounds the early introduction of experimental agents. Should we not have the opportunity to utilize drugs that have succeeded in Phase I trials, (and are thereby known to be safe for human administration), for patients whose cancer tissue reveals a favorable profile ex-vivo? I, for one, would relish the opportunity to administer second-generation EGFr-TKIs to c-MET inhibitors, to appropriately selected candidates. Smart drugs need smart mechanisms to get to market.

With the advent of lung cancer awareness month we have the opportunity to educate the public and expand awareness of the desperate need for advances in this disease. The disparity in funding for lung cancer patients compared with ovarian or breast cancer patients is disturbing. For every lung cancer death, there are five to 10 times more dollars expended on research to prevent breast and ovarian cancer deaths. While we applaud the successes in breast and ovarian cancer treatment we encourage lung cancer patients to call your congressperson to make lung cancer a front burner issue.

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One of our most gratifying success stories is Pat Merwin, now four years since diagnosis. Pat has organized a local (Long Beach, CA) observance of the national lung cancer awareness vigil to be held on Tuesday, November 13. I could not be happier than to be the invited speaker for this important occasion and to be with many of my patients.

Systems Biology Comes of Age: Metastatic Lung Cancer in the Crosshairs

Cancer therapists have long sought mechanisms to match patients to available therapies. Current fashion revolves around DNA mutations, gene copy and rearrangements to select drugs. While every cancer patient may be as unique as their fingerprints, all of the fingerprints on file with the federal AFIS (automated fingerprint identification system) database don’t add up to a hill of genes (pun intended), if you can’t connect them to the criminal.

To continue the analogy, it doesn’t matter why the individual chose a life of crime, his upbringing, childhood traumas or personal tragedies. What matters is that you capture him in the flesh and incarcerate him (or her, to be politically correct).

The term we apply to the study of cancer, as a biological phenomenon is “systems biology.” This discipline strikes fear into the heart of molecular biologists, for it complicates their tidy algorithms and undermines the artificial linearity of their cancer pathways. We frequently allude to the catchphrase, genotype ≠ phenotype, yet it is the cancer phenotype that we must confront if we are to cure this disease.

Using a systems biology approach, we applied the ex-vivo analysis of programmed cell death (EVA-PCD®) to the study of previously untreated patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Tissue aggregates isolated from their surgical specimens were studied in their native state against drugs and signal transduction inhibitors. This methodology captures all of the interacting “systems,” as they respond to cytotoxic agents and growth factor withdrawal. The trial was powered to achieve a two-fold improvement in response.

At interim analysis, we had more than accomplished our goal. The results speak for themselves.

First: a two-fold improvement in clinical response – from the national average of 30 percent we achieved 64.5 percent (p – 0.00015).

Second: The median time to progression was improved from 6.4 to 8.5 months.

Third: And most importantly the median overall survival was improved from an average of 10 – 12 months to 21.3 months, a near doubling.

These results, from a prospective clinical trial in which previously untreated lung cancer patients were provided assay directed therapy, reflects the first real time application of systems biology to chemotherapeutics. The closest comparison for improved clinical outcome with chemotherapeutic drugs chosen from among all active agents by a molecular platform in a prospective clinical trial is . . .

Oh, that’s right there isn’t any.

Type I Error

Scientific proof is rarely proof, but instead our best approximation. Beyond death and taxes, there are few certainties in life. That is why investigators rely so heavily on statistics.

Statistical analyses enable researchers to establish “levels” of certainty. Reported as “p-values,” these metrics offer the reader levels of statistical significance indicating that a given finding is not simply the result of chance. To wit, a p-value equal to 0.1 (1 in 10) means that the findings are 90 percent likely to be true with a 10 percent error. A p-value of 0.05 (1 in 20) tells the reader that the findings are 95 percent likely to be true. While a p-value equal to 0.01 (1 in 100) tells the reader that the results are 99 percent likely to be true. For an example in real time, we are just reporting a paper in the lung cancer literature that doubled the response rate for metastatic disease compared with the national standard. The results achieved statistical significance where p = 0.00015.  That is to say, that there is only 15 chances out of 100,000 that this finding is the result of chance.

Today, many laboratories offer tests that claim to select candidates for treatment. Almost all of these laboratories are conducting gene-based analysis. While there are no good prospective studies that prove that these genomic analyses accurately predict response, this has not prevented these companies from marketing their tests aggressively. Indeed, many insurers are covering these services despite the lack of proof.

So let’s examine why these tests may encounter difficulties now and in the future. The answer to put it succinctly is Type I errors. In the statistical literature, a Type I error occurs when a premise cannot be rejected.  The statistical term for this is to reject the “null” hypothesis. Type II errors occur when the null hypothesis is falsely rejected.

Example: The scientific community is asked to test the hypothesis that Up is Down. Dedicated investigators conduct exhaustive analyses to test this provocative hypothesis but cannot refute the premise that Up is Down. They are left with no alternative but to report according to their carefully conducted studies that Up is Down.

The unsuspecting recipient of this report takes it to their physician and demands to be treated based on the finding. The physician explains that, to his best recollection, Up is not Down.  Unfazed the patient, armed with this august laboratory’s result, demands to be treated accordingly. What is wrong with this scenario? Type I error.

The human genome is comprised of more than 23,000 genes: Splice variants, duplications, mutations, SNPs, non-coding DNA, small interfering RNAs and a wealth of downstream events, which make the interpretation of genomic data highly problematic. The fact that a laboratory can identify a gene does not confer a certainty that the gene or mutation or splice variant will confer an outcome. To put it simply, the input of possibilities overwhelms the capacity of the test to rule in or out, the answer.

Yes, we can measure the gene finding, and yes we have found some interesting mutations. But no we can’t reject the null hypothesis. Thus, other than a small number of discreet events for which the performance characteristics of these genomic analyses have been established and rigorously tested, Type I errors undermine and corrupt the predictions of even the best laboratories. You would think with all of the brainpower dedicated to contemporary genomic analyses that these smart guys would remember some basic statistics.

Empowering Patients Towards Personalized Cancer Care

We have one more guest blogger to introduce during Dr. Nagourney’s absence: Patricia Merwin. Pat just celebrated her fourth anniversary of wellness after receiving a diagnosis of metastatic lung cancer.

In July of 2011, I attended a local TEDx conference in Long Beach, CA where Dr. Robert Nagourney gave a compelling talk about the nature of his work and the future of cancer care. TED is a global organization with a mission to “share ideas worth spreading,” a very appropriate forum for Dr. Nagourney to share his insights into cancer and how to defeat it.

Just three months earlier, at another TEDx event in the Netherlands, Dave deBronkart also gave a talk about the future of cancer care.  Dave deBronkart, better known as “E-patient Dave,” was diagnosed in January 2007 with a rare and terminal kidney cancer.  Given a dismal prognosis, Dave refused to cede his life to “standard care.”  Instead, he turned to a group of fellow patients online and found the information that eventually led to a treatment that saved his life. Dave deBronkart has since become a prolific online patient advocate and an internationally renowned speaker on the subject of patient empowerment and participatory medicine.

Like e-Patient Dave, I was given a “dismal prognosis” when I was diagnosed in 2008 with advanced metastatic lung cancer.  I too refused to cede my life to the standard protocol of the day. But it was not my health care providers who led me to Dr. Nagourney, it was a close friend.  Empowered with the knowledge that it was possible to improve my odds for survival, I chose functional profile testing (EVA-PCD®) to help determine my personalized treatment plan. It was a wise, informed decision resulting in the best possible outcome.  I have since become an online patient advocate, spreading the word to thousands of other patients so that they can become knowledgeable about this important test that could save their lives.

According to Dr. Nagourney, “Every system performs exactly as it was designed to perform. The current system of medical oncology provides adequate care for the average patient. There is little room for true, individualized care, for it disrupts the norm.”  But every patient with cancer has the same objective. To find the treatment that will work for “me.”  With a system skewed toward averages and away from the individual, the path to personalized medicine must be to empower the person with the most at stake – the patient. Dr. Nagourney says, “Today’s patient must become his or her own best advocate.”

More and more, patients are turning to online forums and other patient groups, not just for support, but to seek and share the latest news and information about treatments, side effects, tests, etc. If two heads are better than one, then thousands of engaged patients should, at the very least, provide good food for thought, “ideas worth spreading.”

Dr. Nagourney believes that “it’s in the online trenches where the real, personal war of cancer is being waged.  The old paradigm, that knowledge runs downhill from academics to practitioners to patients is being turned upside down as empowerment goes from the bottom up, not just from the top down.”  I’m sure e-Patient Dave would agree, along with countless other e-patients like him.