Concordance of ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated) immunohistochemistry between biopsy or metastatic tumor samples and primary tumors in gastric cancer patients.

ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated) is one of several DNA repair proteins that are suggested to sensitize tumor cells to the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor olaparib when deficient. The aim of this study was to assess the spatiotemporal concordance of ATM immunohistochemistry (IHC) in gastric cancer in order to determine if measurements made at the level of various sample types and times could be inferred as having the potential to be relevant to treatment decisions made at the patient level. Two independent cohorts composed of 591 gastric cancer patients divided into a gastrectomy cohort (n = 450) and a metastasis cohort (n = 141) were used in this study.

Practical perspectives of personalized healthcare in oncology.

There is an increasing prevalence of drug-diagnostic combinations in oncology. This has placed diagnostic stakeholders directly into the complex benefit-risk, cost, value and uncertainty-driven development paradigm traditionally the preserve of the drug development community. In this review we focus on the delivery of the clinical data required to advance such drug-diagnostic combination development programmes and ultimately satisfy regulators and payors of the value of contemporaneous changes in diagnostic and treatment practice.