Personalized Era in Cancer Treatment Based on Genetic Characteristics

Assist. Prof. Aslıhan Şengelen evaluated current developments in personalized medicine and genetics-based cancer treatments, sharing the success rates of treatments applied according to the molecular characteristics of the tumor.

Assist. Prof. Aslıhan Şengelen stated that individuals' genetic and biological characteristics directly affect treatment responses, emphasizing the importance of taking the molecular characteristics of the tumor into account in cancer treatment. EGFR mutations in lung cancer and HER2 levels in breast cancer were cited as examples of this situation.

Referring to a study of 400 patients published in the journal Nature Medicine, Şengelen noted that the response rate was 17.5 percent in patients treated according to molecular characteristics, compared to 10 percent in the standard treatment group. It was stated that drug responses can be examined in the laboratory using three-dimensional organoid models created from metastatic colorectal cancer patients, but this method is still in the clinical validation phase.

According to a study of 7,000 people published in the journal The Lancet, it was determined that treatments arranged through genetic analyses reduced drug side effects by 30 percent. In addition, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2025 was given as an example where a CRISPR-based gene editing treatment was applied to an infant with a rare metabolic disease. Şengelen reminded that genetic information alone is not sufficient and must be evaluated together with clinical findings.