Clinical Trial Studies the Effects of Personalized Medicine
Scottsdale Healthcare Research Institute is making great strides in the battle against all types of cancer.
A clinical trial studying personalized medicine conducted at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare and other sites show cancer patients can survive longer under treatments based on their individual genetic profiles, or personalized medicine.
Known as the Bisgrove Trial, the clinical trial evaluated which treatment would be best for a specific tumor type based on molecular profiling. In personalized medicine, the type of drugs, dosages, their delivery and other treatment aspects are all based on the individual’s medical needs. In a significant number of patients, the targeted treatments provided considerably longer periods when tumors did not progress. In some instances, tumors even shrunk.
These findings are a major step toward making personalized medicine a reality and provide new hope for the most difficult-to-treat cancers. This study was funded through a $5 million grant by Arizona philanthropist Jerry Bisgrove’s Stardust Foundation to the Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation.
The study included 66 patients at nine centers across the United States, including Scottsdale Healthcare. All of the patients had previously experienced tumor growth while undergoing prior cancer treatments, including conventional chemotherapy. Among the patients, 27 percent had breast cancer, 17 percent had colorectal cancer, 8 percent had ovarian cancer and 48 percent had cancers that were classified as miscellaneous.
Among those with breast cancer, the period of progression-free survival increased for 44 percent of patients; for colorectal, 36 percent of patients; for ovarian, 20 percent of patients; and for miscellaneous cancers improvement was seen in 16 percent of patients.
Principal investigator of the Bisgrove Trial was Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, chief scientific officer for Scottsdale Healthcare Research Institute and physician-in-chief of the Phoenix-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
“With this trial, we are showing the power of personalized medicine using the tools we already have available to us,” Dr. Von Hoff said. “As these tools become more precise and more effective, the value of personalized medicine will increase.”
In honor of the Stardust Foundation’s gift, the research building at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center is named the Debi and Jerry Bisgrove Research Pavilion.
Scottsdale Healthcare Research Institute is a partnership of Scottsdale Healthcare and TGen. The partnership allows molecular and genomic discoveries made by TGen and others around the world to reach the patient bedside in the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare as quickly as possible through clinical trials with agents directed at specific targets in patients’ tumors.