Personalized Medicine in Head and Neck Oncology – 3 Years in Review

The aim of personalized oncology is to offer cancer patients individual treatment options through a detailed molecular, cellular and functional analysis of their tumor tissue, usually after exhausting the conventional therapy options. At the ENT clinic in Würzburg, such an analysis has been established as part of the molecular tumor board since 09/2017. In addition, since 02/2020, an internal screening study in the clinic's study outpatient department has been performing a molecular tumor analysis in patients with incurable local recurrence or distant metastases who are no longer accessible to conventional therapy.

In the first 3 years, almost 30 patients at the Head and Neck Tumor Center in Würzburg received a molecular tumor analysis after discussing the case in the molecular tumor board. More than 10 patients were included into the internal screening study of the ENT clinic Würzburg in the first year.

A targetable genetic change was found in 9 patients. 8 patients received a drug therapy recommendation. Three times, the farnesyl transferase inhibitor tipifarnib was suggested due to the presence of a HRAS mutation. Further therapy recommendations included the PIK3 inhibitor alpelisib and the GnRH analogue leuprorelin. The recommended drug therapy was started in 3 patients.

Thanks to the diagnostic measures of personalized oncology, the first individual therapies for oncological patients could be initiated for the head and neck tumor center in Würzburg in the first 3 years. In the future, molecular tumor analyzes should be carried out even earlier in order to provide targeted therapy already in second-line therapy.

Poster-PDF A-1161.pdf

Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021