Personalized and precision medicine as a unique avenue to have the healthcare model renewed to secure national biosafety: To get cancer treated or cured by integrating multifaceted approaches focusing on immunooncology?

To achieve the implementation of Personalized & Precision Oncology (PPO), it is necessary to create a fundamentally new strategy based upon the recognition of bi-omarkers long before the disease clinically manifests itself. And personalized tumor molecular profiles (uniting genomic and phenotypic ones), tumor disease site and other patient characteristics are then potentially used for determining optimum in-dividualized (preventive, prophylactic, canonical and rehabilitative) therapy options to be tailored and applied for.
PPM/PPO are most likely to play a great role in cancer management and treatment. And we are entering an era of rapidly evolving transformation in cancer research as it relates to medical practice, and a shifting paradigm of standardized health care in which detailed genetic and molecular information regarding a patient’s cancer is be-ing used for PPM/PPM-based treatments.
Meanwhile, the immune system has the greatest potential for the specific destruc-tion of tumors with no toxicity to normal tissue and for long-term memory that can prevent cancer recurrence. Globally, malignant cancer cells very often develop mechanisms by which they can suppress an immune response or remain undetected by the immune system. That is why attempts to fight cancer with the patient's own immune system have, in just a few years, completely revolutionized - how we think about and treat cancer. In brief, triggering the body's own immune system to fight cancer is mainly done through activation of tumor killing T-cells, or through inhibi-tion of the tumor's own suppressive activity on the immune system, integrating the resources of immune system and microenvironment.
With growing diversity, the possibilities to combine different approaches in immu-no-oncology are also increasing. Immunooncology therapeutics is leading to a trans-formational shift in treatment paradigms for patients with cancer. Development of novel drugs and biologics will likely lead to more effective therapies tailored to the unique immune biology within each cancer patient to stimulate, and orchestrate the body’s natural defenses as a treatment for their cancer while minimizing toxicities. Globally, immunooncology is one of the fastest growing therapeutic areas within on-cology, working via the host's adaptive and innate immune system to recognize and eradicate tumor cells. While conventional chemotherapy mounts an indiscriminate, toxic, and direct attack on both malignant and normal cells, immunotherapy agents work indirectly making cancer immunotherapy extraordinarily promising given its potential for specificity, breadth of response, memory, and durability.
This understanding of the interplay between the immune system and cancer has led to the development of a number of immunological agents for cancer therapy.The biggest breakthrough in immuno-oncology comes from so-called checkpoint inhibi-tors (CPIs) that block immune-suppressing signaling in T-cells, thereby giving them greater chance to attack cancer cells. Cancer immunotherapy has made progress in multiple cancer types including melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and urothelial carcinoma; however, several cancers remain re-fractory to immunotherapy. Recent studies indicate that well designed immuno-therapies, administered at the appropriate stage of tumor progression can tilt the on-going interaction of the tumor with the immune system from immune escape to cancer elimination.
The potential of immunooncology can uncover ways to enable immunogenicity of all types of cancer and facilitate long-lasting, protective immunity against future recur-rence. Recent breakthroughs in checkpoint Inhibition, CAR T cell therapy and per-sonalized cancer vaccines illuminate the full capabilities of the immune system and how it may be harnessed to combat cancer. Consider the impact of a targeted immu-no-oncology therapy - it carries promise in how we approach and treat cancer.
As an example, the Immuno-Oncology program established by MSK’s pioneering ini-tiatives in the development of immune checkpoint blockade therapy, chimeric anti-gen receptor (CAR-T) and other cellular therapies, and cancer vaccines, serves as a central hub for immunooncology research, working in close collaboration with world-renowned basic and design-inspired translational research programs, collabo-rative cancer centers, and cutting-edge core facilities. The program’s physician-scientists are positioned to bridge the gap between research and patient treatment, leveraging extensive clinical expertise and infrastructure to study clinically relevant mechanisms.