Cyber Cloud Oncology

Abstract

Breast cancer treatment is experiencing a groundswell transformation directed by a better understanding of tumour cell metabolism. Observation of metabolic tumor cell variations led to precision medicine. In addition, a “new wave” of rapid drug development spurred by the 2016 U.S. government’s Moonshot program is in the backdrop and, in part, placed an overwhelming burden on clinical oncologists and patients. In 2016, the U.S. government announced the Cancer Moonshot intending to make ten years’ worth of progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in just five years. In the 5-year interval 2017–2021, the FDA issued an unprecedented 161 new approvals of therapeutic agents for various indications in adult patients with solid tumors. Cancer chemotherapy now involves a complex balance between new drug development, clinical trial observations, FDA drug approvals, next-generation sequencing of tumour and blood samples, and “consensus opinion” between medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists. New “precision” medicine selects precise treatment options that benefit patients based on the genomic makeup of their tumour. Genomic profiling provides information about a diagnosis and prognosis and often predicts response or resistance to therapy, years before routine imaging studies change. New technologies, including liquid biopsy and next-generation sequencing (NGS), have identified oncogenic drivers and unique drugs capable of targeting and inhibiting/modifying newly discovered oncogenic driver pathways. Herein is presented a helpful method for keeping track of and rapidly updating physicians on newly developed effective treatments and therapeutic consensus opinion, which often lacks contemporary harmonization between official oncology societies. Physicians and supporting healthcare workers contribute the most to patients when equipped with knowledge of the newest, least toxic, and most effective therapies.