Precision Cancer Medicine
The latest in personalized cancer treatment
Precision medicine is a growing, exciting field — and the future of cancer management. The Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center at The University of Toledo Medical Center is at the forefront of this cutting-edge medicine that allows us to offer you the best, most individualized treatment for your cancer.
What is precision medicine?
Think of precision medicine as personalized medicine – a treatment for you and your specific cancer.
Physicians investigate your cancer and identify what causes it to grow and spread. Once they find the molecular signal that causes the growth, they design a unique therapy that precisely targets the signal and disables it. No signal, no more cancer growth.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first precision therapy 20 years ago. Since then, more than 65 cancer targets have been identified. More than 100 precision therapies have been rigorously tested and approved to attack the targets. Here at UTMC, we offer more than 80 of those FDA-approved therapies.
What are the benefits of precision therapy?
Precision therapy is safer than chemotherapy because it's designed to destroy cancer cells while not hurting a patient's healthy cells. Studies have shown that patients treated with precision therapies have fewer side effects and better outcomes than patients using traditional treatments.
Even as a second-line treatment – used after a patient has failed a first treatment – precision therapy is often more effective than traditional treatments. When a patient's cancer doesn't respond to a traditional treatment, the "response rate" for the second treatment is usually lower. But when precision therapy is used as a second treatment, the response rate is often the same or even higher.
Precision therapy: The standard of care at the Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center
All patients treated for cancer at the Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center now have the opportunity to undergo molecular mapping.
We are one of the only community hospitals in the country in which expert scientists are a part of your medical team from the very beginning. Using the latest technology, they map your tumor's genetic profile and pinpoint the gene that is driving your cancer.
Armed with this information, our oncologists will choose the best therapy for your type of cancer. Depending on the specifics of your cancer, we may be able target treatment with one of more than 80 FDA-approved precision therapies.
The Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center has secured one of the largest supplies of FDA-approved precision therapies in the U.S. Each has been rigorously tested by the Food and Drug Administration and been shown to stabilize and shrink tumors, and even make them disappear.
About 35% of patients nationally are candidates for precision therapies based on their tumors' genetic profiles.
Precision therapies are delivered in a manner similar to how chemotherapy is delivered, either orally or through an IV.
Precision therapy clinical trials
The Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center has established a cutting edge clinical trial program focused on new precision therapies and the discovery of new targets. The trials are accepting new patients. Consult your medical team to determine if you're a good candidate for a clinical trial.