Improving public cancer care by implementing precision medicine in Norway: IMPRESS-Norway.
Åslaug HellandHege G RussnesGro Live FagerengKhalid Al-ShibliYvonne AnderssonThomas BergLine BjørgeEgil BlixBodil BjerkehagenSigmund BrabrandMarte Grønlie CameronAstrid DalhaugDalia DietzelTom DønnemEspen EnerlyÅsmund FlobakSverre FlugeBjørnar GiljeBjørn Tore GjertsenBjørn Henning GrønbergKari GrønåsTormod GurenHanne HamreÅse HaugDaniel HeinrichGeir Olav HjortlandEivind HovigRandi HovlandAnn-Charlotte IversenEmiel JanssenJon Amund KyteHedda von der Lippe GythfeldtRagnhild LotheJo-Åsmund LundLeonardo Meza-ZepedaMonica Cheng Munthe-KaasOlav Toai Duc NguyenPitt NiehusmannHilde NilsenKatarina PucoAnne Hansen ReeTonje Bøyum RisteKarin SembEli Sihn Samdal SteinskogAndreas StensvoldPål SuhrkeØyvind TennøeGeir E TjønnfjordLiv Jorunn VassbotnEline AasKristine AasebøKjetil TaskenSigbjørn SmelandPublished in: Journal of translational medicine (2022)
Precision oncology means to stratify treatment based on specific patient characteristics and the molecular profile of the tumor. Use of targeted drugs is currently restricted to specific biomarker-defined subgroups of patients according to their market authorization. However, other cancer patients might also benefit of treatment with these drugs if the same biomarker is present. The emerging technologies in molecular diagnostics are now being implemented in Norway and it is publicly reimbursed, thus more cancer patients will have a more comprehensive genomic profiling of their tumour. Patients with actionable genomic alterations in their tumour may have the possibility to try precision cancer drugs through IMPRESS-Norway, if standard treatment is no longer an option, and the drugs are available in the study. This might benefit some patients. In addition, it is a good example of a public-private collaboration to establish a national infrastructure for precision oncology. Trial registrations EudraCT: 2020-004414-35, registered 02/19/2021; ClinicalTrial.gov: NCT04817956, registered 03/26/2021.