WINTHER Trial Highlights Challenges, Potential of Transcriptomics for Precision Oncology
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2019
WINTHER Trial Highlights Challenges, Potential of Transcriptomics for Precision Oncology
Apr 22, 2019 Turna Ray
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – A newly published study has demonstrated the potential of using transcriptomics to help get cancer patients on treatments they're most likely to benefit from.
The study, called WINTHER, appears today in Nature Medicine and included RNA expression analysis in addition to genetic sequencing to match cancer patients to drugs. Despite demonstrating the promise of the approach, the study did not reach its primary endpoint as it had to deal with the same challenges that have plagued other precision oncology trials.
This is the first trial to match patients with solid tumors to treatments based on transcriptomics, noted Vladimir Lazar, an investigator on WINTHER and chief scientific and operating officer of the WIN Consortium, the body organizing the study. While the trial may not have reached its prespecified endpoint,