BBC World highlights the future of personalised medicine in the UK

Image with thanks to Rockhopper TV

A new programme on BBC World’s The Health Show revealed how doctors in the UK are tailoring cancer treatments to individual patients using samples of their DNA.

The series features an interview with Dr David Gonzales de Castro, Head of Molecular Diagnostics at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and 
The Royal Marsden Hospital 
(pictured right).

For a number of years, Dr Gonzales de Castro and his team have been providing patients in the UK’s southeast with a routine molecular diagnosis that helps doctors determine the best treatment options for them. 

As highlighted on The Health Show, the ICR and The Royal Marsden are now playing a key role in a ground-breaking national project that could ultimately lead to personalised cancer treatment for all patients on the NHS. The Cancer Research UK Stratified Medicine Programme aims to establish a world-class NHS genetic testing service in the UK, which would help match cancer patients to the most appropriate treatments.

The Royal Marsden and the ICR form one of seven “clinical hubs” that are recruiting patients to the Stratified Medicine Programme, and one of three “technical hubs” that are carrying out the genetic testing on patients’ samples.

Up to 9,000 patients across the UK will participate in the first phase of the programme, which covers six different tumour types: breast, bowel, lung, prostate, ovary and melanoma skin cancer. The Royal Marsden and the ICR have already produced the first results as part of this project from lung cancer patients’ tumour samples, while over 100 Royal Marsden patients have been recruited so far into the project.

The programme was broadcast on BBC World on:
Saturday 28 January 2012 and Sunday 29 January 2012

If you missed the live broadcast, you can view it below

 

Outside the UK you can also see it on the BBC World website