Precision medicine for cancer treatment

Page date: Published 7 Feb 2025; updated 25 Mar 2026. 2 min read.

The article describes precision oncology as using tumour molecular profiling to identify mutations or biomarkers and help select treatments. It says the approach aims to target cancer cells while limiting harm to healthy tissue, and discusses its use in lung, prostate, breast, colorectal and skin melanoma cancers. Examples named include EGFR-targeted therapies for lung cancer and BRAF inhibitors for melanoma.

For breast cancer, the article lists hormone therapies for hormone receptor-positive disease; HER2-targeted drugs such as trastuzumab and pertuzumab; checkpoint inhibitors such as pembrolizumab for some triple-negative cases; genomic subtyping tools such as PAM50; and chemotherapy tailored to tumour subtype and patient profile. The article is general information and does not address individual treatment decisions; clinical use depends on diagnosis and medical guidance.

It identifies access to diagnostic tools and the cost of precision therapies as barriers to wider adoption. Related link: Health and life science; related article on precision medicine and cancer prevention/detection.