Molecular Tumour Boards and Precision Medicine in Czech Oncology Centres
Abstract
Molecular Tumour Boards and Precision Medicine in Czech Oncology CentresAdela Bartova1, Barbora Rihova2Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic* E-mail: adela.bartova@med.muni.czAbstractThe success and clinical response of patients to cancer treatment depends on the ability to identify somatic mutations associated with the tumour—the so-called mutation charge, according to which we can better target and individualise treatment. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has become a revolutionary method for decoding the order of individual nucleotides and DNA fragments. Sequencing the human genome can be done much faster at present, the cost of sequencing is still falling, and insurance companies are also gradually adding this procedure to their reimbursement list. NGS has opened up completely new possibilities in therapeutic, diagnostic, and screening procedures at the level of individual patients, and not only in oncology. Groups of experts who consult on individual cases and the results of NGS with a certain regularity were formed to decide on personalised oncological care. Internationally, we can call them molecular tumour boards (MTBs), and the Czech Republic is not lagging in creating these groups. Large oncology centres and university hospitals approach precision medicine, and at the same time, they are aware of the need to share