Dr Luis A. Diaz Foresees Mismatched Repair Testing Implementation in Cancer Treatment

uis A. Diaz, Jr, MD, associate professor of oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, discovered that patients with high mutational burden with mismatched repair responded well to checkpoint inhibition of PD1. For colon cancer and perhaps for additional cancers such as pancreatic, lung, and ovarian, Dr Diaz predicts that mismatched repair testing will change the course of cancer treatment in the coming years.

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“My suspicion is that this will become standard of care in the near future for colon cancer. And that will demand that mismatched repair testing be a part of the standard of care for those patients,” Dr Diaz said. “And I suspect that up front, when you get diagnosed with advanced colon cancer, you’re going to get mismatched repair testing.”

Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center is now in collaboration with Merck, which Dr Diaz said is in the beginning stages of opening 2 new studies focused on patients who failed all therapy and on patients who are newly diagnosed in an effort to compare which standard of care works more effectively.