Tonight, I continued watching a session from the London Calling 2024 Clinical & Biopharma Day. The expert panel’s title was “Precision oncology: driving better outcomes for patients, health systems, and populations.” Olivier Lucas, the Director of Oncology with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), moderated the discussion. The audience asked the panelists questions about sensitivity and risk determination. William Stanford from Biography Health began explaining that cost-saving defensive medicine approaches have value. Stanford also spoke about imaging and AI. They believe that multimodal approaches are critical because the multiple layers inform each other. Stanford said that AI in the future and what we will do with it will likely be amazing. Matt Brown is the Chief Scientific Officer at Genomics England and a practicing oncologist. They explained that the current screening services perform better for high-risk patients, but Brown said screening the general population is challenging. Luca Mazzarella from the European Institute of Oncology in Italy explained that whether a test is useful depends a lot on the patient population. Their example was a comparison of the genetic diversity in Estonia compared to England. Panelists discussed the value of developing tools and risk metrics that are less susceptible to ancestry differences. Clemens Jakobi from Lonza, Switzerland, is a pharmacist by training and mentioned that there are opportunities to make treatments affordable, including personalized mRNAs… but that “we are not there” … yet. Stanford explained that they are developing risk scores based on their research. All panelists spoke about regulatory hurdles and the implementation of systems. Stanford, Mazzarella, and Brown talked about access to tests. Brown thinks that, ultimately, whole genome sequencing will replace panels, but currently, the cost differential is significant. Mazzarella emphasized that sequencing information alone is not as useful as having the genetic specialist or counselor help identify and manage risks. Brown added that the NHS has developed a tumor-specific sequencing workflow, and they are doing a pilot to sequence 100,000 newborn genomes for the treatment/management of genetic diseases. Jakobi spoke about startup companies using mRNA technologies against cancer. Brown described trials they are involved in with the help of Moderna and others. The panelists were asked if they had their genomes sequenced. Brown mentioned they had their genome sequenced and could prepare and manage for hemochromatosis. Mazzarella emphasized that people react differently to knowledge about their risk factors. This panel started fascinating discussions about what to share and how when it comes to approaches and genomic data.
