The National Cancer Center conducted tests on cancer patients who have completed standard treatments such as surgery and anti-cancer drugs to search for the most suitable drug by broadly examining their genes. After examining the data, we found that only about 15% of people had a candidate treatment.
The research group believes that the reason for this is that there are few therapeutic drugs available for some types of cancer, and hopes for the development of therapeutic drugs.
In Japan, ``cancer gene panel testing,'' which searches a wide range of genes to find the most suitable drug for cancer patients who have completed standard treatments such as surgery and anticancer drugs, has been covered by public insurance for the past five years. You can now receive it at
A group at the National Cancer Center analyzed data on 48,627 people who underwent this test in Japan, and found that only 15.3% of patients found a candidate treatment.
The research group
found that while there are some cancers for which drugs can be found at a high rate, such as
85.3% for thyroid
cancer and 60.1% for invasive breast
cancer,
there are few drugs available for treatment
, such as 0% for salivary gland cancer and 0.3% for liposarcoma.
The reason for this is that there are many cancers that cannot be detected.
This is the first study to conduct a large-scale analysis of the results of genetic testing of cancer patients in Japan, and Keisuke Kataoka, head of the Molecular Oncology Division at the National Cancer Center Research Institute, said, ``We are trying to improve drug use for cancers with a small number of patients. The lack of progress in development is contributing to the large difference.Comparing the analysis results in Europe and the United States, we also found that there are differences by race, so I hope that further drug development will take place."