Tumor profiler finds method for individual melanoma therapy

(CONNECT) A research group from five Swiss institutions has used nine molecular biological technologies for profiling melanoma simultaneously for the first time worldwide as part of the Tumor Profiler project, which has been running since 2018. Each melanoma was thus determined individually and down to the individual cell. According to a report by the University of Zurich, 43,000 data points were collected per tumor of the 116 study participants.

The research group was made up of over 100 scientists from the University Hospital Zurich (USZ), the University of Zurich (UZH), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), the University Hospital Basel and Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Their study also showed that the recommendations provided by tumor profiling are practical: They were available after four weeks. In addition, 75 percent of the treating physicians rated them as helpful for the choice of therapy.

Based on this information, the USZ tumor board, a group of oncology specialists, suggested specific, individually tailored therapies to the study participants. It was found that these patients responded more frequently to the therapy than those who did not take part in the program.

“This study is a major step towards data-based medicine,” says Andreas Wicki, Professor of Oncology at UZH, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology and Co-Director of the Tumor Profiler Center at USZ. “It paves the way for new clinical trials that do not test individual drugs, but rather the actual prediction of the most effective therapy.” ce/mm