This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Adam Fox about biomarker testing for targeted lung cancer treatment. Dr. Fox is an Assistant Professor of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and he’s a pulmonologist at Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Biomarker testing has become an important part of lung cancer care. Doctor Adam Fox is here to provide details about how this testing can help provide targeted therapy to lung cancer patients. Doctor Fox is an Assistant Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and he's a pulmonologist at Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC. Doctor Fox, tell us about biomarker testing for lung cancer patients.
Dr. Fox: Well, biomarker testing is part of precision medicine in which we tailor the treatments for an individual with lung cancer based on individual factors about that patient and their cancer. This testing is typically done on a patient's tumor or on the bloodstream to help match a patient with the correct therapy.
Conner: And then once this biomarker testing is finished, how do you use the results from that test to help develop the treatment for a person with lung cancer?
Dr. Fox: Well, we actually have a number of treatments for patients with lung cancer. Many of them are relatively new and have been developed in the last 15 years. And we need to know these biomarkers to know whether a patient is likely to respond to these treatments.
Conner: And a big part of this biomarker testing is ahead of time, you can tell, to some degree, which of these approaches to treatment might have the best results for that particular patient.
Dr. Fox: Absolutely. The way I've come to think about this is, while some patients may not be eligible for these targeted therapies, without biomarker testing you just can't know.
Conner: And how big of a difference can biomarker testing make for an individual patient with lung cancer?
Dr. Fox: It can really make a dramatic difference in the treatment and in the outcome for a patient's cancer care. Some of these therapies are targeted therapies, and many of those are pills. And so, for some patients they might actually get a pill type of therapy rather than infusions of chemotherapy. Other treatment differences could include the use of immune therapy. And while it's an infusion, the side effects are much less than what people think of as traditional chemotherapy.
Conner: Tell us about the recent grant that you received from the American Cancer Society, looking to improve the use of biomarker testing?
Dr. Fox: Well, there's actually a couple issues that everyone faces with getting this testing done systematically and quickly. And so, the first part of the grant will look at the current state, looking at barriers and facilitators to biomarker testing. And the second part of the grant will be defined as a single community site and deploy an intervention, something to improve biomarker testing at that site.
Conner: What additional information do you feel is important for listeners to know related to biomarker testing for lung cancer?
Dr. Fox: I would say that if you or your family member have been recently diagnosed with lung cancer, that you ask your oncology team if you've had lung cancer biomarker testing, or if you need to have lung cancer biomarker testing.
Conner: Doctor Fox, thanks for this information about biomarker testing for lung cancer.
Dr. Fox: You're welcome.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
