A small company called Loxo Oncology thinks it can treat every cancer patient that harbors a specific, unusual, genetic mutation…The company’s drug…treats cancers with a mutation in a gene called TRK.
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Drugs like Loxo’s gained attention [recently], when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for the first time, gave a green light for doctors to prescribe another cancer drug, Keytruda, based on specific genetic features of cancers rather where in the body where the disease originated.
But to prescribe such drugs, doctors will have to know the genetic makeup of a tumor—and so far in the U.S. only 12 percent of late stage metastatic cancer patients are getting tests that screen broadly for genetic mutations….
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Robert Doebele, an oncologist and TRK researcher at Colorado State University, says his worry is that a lot of physicians aren’t ordering comprehensive genetic testing for cancer patients.
“These drugs appear to be very effective for certain types of mutations, but sometimes it’s hard to convince oncologists to test for a mutation that might only occur in 1 percent of their patients,” he says. “My sense is that they’re worried about their patients getting a $5,000 bill.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Promising New Cancer Drugs Won’t Go Far Unless Everyone Gets Genetic Testing
