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Intratumor and circulating clonal heterogeneity shape the basis of precision breast cancer therapy


The recent evidence of spatiotemporal genomes and tumor evolution has led to the development of breakthrough next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) and circulating clonal diversity represent two of the most possible explanations of primary and secondary resistance. In this editorial, we discuss how extensive biobanking for each individual patient with subsequent genome sequencing can open novel horizons for precision medicine in breast cancer.

Approximately half a century following the war against cancer and the discovery of DNA double helix, millions of patients still die from the disease. The initial enthusiasm on personalized medicine after the completion of the first human genome sequence draft at the beginning of this millennium, was followed by skepticism on the basis of the complexity of noncoding genome functionality and nonlinear transcription. Although the ENCODE project has revolutionized biomedical research highlighting the necessity for a long-term basic research efforts, at the same time it has shaped innovative horizons in improving NGS technologies and developing breakthrough methods for understanding cancer evolution and resistance to current therapies.

Click here to read the full article in Future Oncology.