HJAR Jan/Feb 2022

34 JAN / FEB 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS DIALOGUE COLUMN ONCOLOGY IN THE 1940s, chemotherapy was ushered into a new era of usage as the anti-cancer effects of mustard gas derivatives and folic acid antagonists were first recognized. Over the next few decades, different variations and combinations of drugs were tested and studied, and by the early 2000s, virtually all of the chemotherapy agents commonly used today had been discovered. In 2003, the completion of the Human Genome Project revolutionized cancer re- search and drug development, as the same techniques could be applied to sequence a cancer cell’s entire genome. With this, the field of molecular profiling exploded, and there is now immense focus on finding and developing drugs capable of targeting and shutting off a cancer’s specific “driver” gene mutation. Today, innovative companies like Caris Life Sciences, Foundation Medicine, Tem- pus and others can perform comprehensive molecular profiling on very tiny samples of a tumor. Hundreds of genes can be analyzed on a single specimen using a combination of techniques including high-throughput next- generation sequencing, immunohistochemi- cal staining, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FiSH) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Although most gene alterations identified by these comprehensive testing methods are THE NEW ERA of Molecular Profiling in Solid Tumors