Oncology biomarkers in clinical practice – a new horizon

In an era where medicine is increasingly underpinned by a molecular understanding of disease and an evolving evidence base for best practice, the concept of personalised medicine, where treatment selection for each patient becomes individualised, has gained momentum1. The ability to individualise a patient’s care has become a particularly pressing issue in the field of cancer therapeutics as there is a growing recognition that both the global incidence of cancer is steadily rising and the associated costs in terms of treatment and lost productivity are ever increasing. Advances in molecular profiling, which allow the typing of cancers according to their gene expression profile, have made it possible to identify biomarkers that have the potential to allow risk stratification of patients into disease-and treatment-specific subgroups.