American Association for Cancer Research in Tweets: Cancer Immunotherapy, TMB and Clinical Trial Matching

This week was the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Washington, DC. As we followed the event, we identified the 140-character anecdotes and quotes that shine a light on emerging trends in cancer research.

Cancer immunotherapy continues to be a hot topic. While the treatment landscape is growing, it’s also getting more complex, which is why we need to evolve our approach to predictive biomarkers.

Currently, immunotherapy isn’t able to help everyone. Yet scientists like our own Daniel Lieber and others are finding that some clinical markers, including tumor mutational burden (TMB), could help us enhance our understanding of which patients are most likely to respond.

Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) could help us unravel the complexity of cancer and match the right treatment to the right patients. We presented new data showing how our CGP assay FoundationOne® can identify potentially actionable mutations in several cancer types, including breast cancer

Matching patients to the right clinical trial was another robust and important conversation at the meeting. New results suggested that CGP can help accelerate clinical trials by identifying responders to a range of targeted therapies and immunotherapies.

We’re proud to contribute to the fight against cancer on many fronts, including our partnership with the Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BPAC). Our Chief Scientific Officer Phil Stephens participated in a panel with other BPAC members discussing considerations for using liquid biopsy in drug and diagnostic development and for opening up more treatment options.

Former Vice President Joe Biden took the stage to discuss Cancer Moonshot and affirmed his ongoing commitment to this initiative and urged us all to keep making progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. We’re proud to participate in an initiative of this scale and look forward to seeing his efforts continue through Cancer Moonshot.

As in past years, this year’s conference was another example of the incredible work made possible through the efforts of researchers, physicians and patients around the globe. We’re honored to have been a part of #AACR17 and hope to continue transforming cancer research and inspiring new innovation.