Medical speed-dating: Novel study will match lung cancer drugs to patients’ gene profiles

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Breyan Harris, a lifelong non-smoker who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, posses at her home in Fair Oaks, Calif., Monday, June 16, 2014. Harris, 33, hopes to enroll in a new cancer drug test that starts Monday in hundred of hospitals around the country. Like a medical version of speed dating, doctors will sort through multiple potential drugs and match patients to the one most likely to succeed based on each person\'s unique tumor gene profile.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

A bold new way to test cancer drugs started Monday. Like a medical version of speed dating, doctors will sort through multiple experimental drugs and match patients to the one most likely to succeed based on each person’s unique tumour gene profile.

Five drug companies, the government, private foundations and advocacy groups are taking part.

The goal is to speed new treatments to market. Instead of being tested for individual genes and trying to qualify for separate clinical trials testing single drugs, patients can enrol in this umbrella study, get full gene testing and have access to many options at once.

The study is for one type of lung cancer, squamous cell. About 500 hospitals around the country are taking part.

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