Precision Oncology works wonders for cancer patients

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It is now a well-established fact that cancer is a disease of the genes and varies not only from person to person but also at molecular level from tumor to tumor. Therefore, a particular therapy that may have been partly or fully successful in some cancer patients, may lead to complete failure in other patients. In the recent years our understanding of genetics and dynamics of human cancers has greatly improved because of advanced and ultra-sensitive molecular technologies. These technologies reveal the genetic features and metabolic dynamics of the cancer, and oncologists can use this information to devise personalized therapies for each patient. This personalized approach of diagnosis and therapy management greatly overcomes limitations of guideline-based approach. More importantly, it is now possible to test the efficacy of drugs (and drug combinations) directly on live tumor cells taken from the patient and grown in the laboratory, which completely eliminates trial-and-error in patients, and significantly reduces drug failure and toxicity.

This modern approach is called Precision Oncology and is made available to cancer patients by Center for Difficult Cancers (CDC). CDC aims to achieve the goal of personalized therapy by customizing the treatment plan based on two factors, viz, the unique molecular biomarker profile of the malignancy in each patient, as well as the in-vitro sensitivity of the tumor cells to a panel of approved and off-lab

The Center for Difficult Cancers (CDC), located on Law College Road, Pune inaugurated on Monday, 16th July 2018 at the hands of renowned actor, director and writer Ms. Mrinal Kulkarni and in esteemed presence of eminent Oncologist Dr. Anantbhushan Ranade, Dr. Amit Bhatt and Dr. Darshana Patil from the CDC.