Families’ experiences of a precision medicine trial for childhood cancer

18 Mar 2020

Written by *Janine Vetsch, *Kate Hetherington, Claire E. Wakefield, & David S. Ziegler (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)

Clinical trials For clinicians For patients Opinion Patient perspective

A current challenge in the field of precision medicine for high-risk childhood cancer is finding the right balance between offering families hope for a cure for their child while ensuring realistic expectations of what precision medicine can currently offer. Children with high-risk cancers often have a low chance of survival with current treatment options. Precision medicine uses genomic technologies as well as in vitro and in vivo profiling to identify targeted treatment options for these patients.Patients enrolling in precision medicine trials have often exhausted other treatment options and the family is hoping for a cure, even if they know this...