Translating Genomics for Precision Cancer Medicine

Abstract

The Human Genome Project not only provided the essential reference map for the human genome but also stimulated the development of technology and analytic tools to process massive quantities of genomic data. As a result of this project, new technologies for DNA sequencing have improved in efficiency and cost by more than a millionfold over the past decade, and these technologies can now be routinely applied at a cost of less than $5,000 per genome. Although the application of these technologies in cancer genomics research has continued to contribute to basic discoveries, opportunities for translating them for individual patients have also emerged. This is especially important in clinical cancer research, where genetic alterations in a patient's tumor may be matched to molecularly targeted therapies. In this review, we discuss the integration of cancer genomics and clinical oncology and the opportunity to deliver precision cancer medicine.