Ferrying Oncologists Across the Chasm of Interpreting Biomarker Testing Reports: Systematic Support Needed to Improve Care and Decrease Disparities

Over the past several decades, no strategy has transformed cancer care more than the implementation of prospectively assessed biomarkers to guide treatment decision making. Advances in our understanding of tumor genomics have led to development of specific targeted and immune-based therapies that have produced remarkably deeper and more sustained responses than have been historically possible with empirically selected treatment strategies. This concept of precision oncology is predicated on testing of tumor tissue or circulating tumor DNA to develop a molecular profile from which an optimal therapeutic approach can be determined.