LANSING, Mich. — Cancer patients in Lansing will see more treatment chosen by the genes inside their own tumors. Michigan Medicine and its Lansing partner, UM Health-Sparrow, are growing their precision oncology work in the city, health leaders said Monday at the Herbert-Herman Cancer Center.
The idea is simple to state: instead of giving every patient with one kind of cancer the same plan, doctors read the genetic makeup of a tumor and pick drugs aimed at the specific mutations driving it. Physicians already screen hundreds of genes for each case, and the goal now is to test even more of them and add medicines that can hit those targets.
Sparrow says it led the region in signing on with Foundation Medicine, a molecular testing company, becoming Mid-Michigan’s earliest cancer program to do so, to link local doctors and patients with targeted therapies. Under that model, a medicine built for breast tumors may also treat a pancreatic, prostate or colon cancer whose cells share the matching mutation.
The hospital also enrolls patients in clinical trials of newer multi-targeted drugs, which it says keeps that care close to home and can mean shorter hospital stays.
Filed under: Lansing MI Health News
