A promise for personalised treatment of cancer

Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP) is a challenging condition where doctors cannot identify the original source of the cancer, leading to generally poor outcomes with standard treatments. Typically, patients receive broad chemotherapy regimens that target common cancer types, such as those based on platinum or taxanes. Unfortunately, these treatments have not significantly improved overall survival.

A recent study explores a new approach using molecularly guided treatment (MGT) to potentially improve outcomes for CUP patients.

Patients initially received three cycles of standard chemotherapy. Those whose cancer either responded to or remained stable after the initial treatment were then randomly assigned to two groups: one continued with standard chemotherapy, while the other group received MGT. For those in the MGT group without specific genetic targets, treatment included chemotherapy plus a drug.

After a median follow-up of 24 months, the results showed that patients in the MGT group had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 6.1 months, compared to 4.4 months for those receiving continued chemotherapy.

This study suggests that personalised treatment based on genetic profiling may offer better results than traditional chemotherapy alone and could further improve as more targeted treatments become available.

Source: The Lancet