It has been discussed for many years, but it really seems like the time has come to change the name of tumors: since their classification is now based on molecular criteria, it no longer makes sense to label them with the name of the organs in which they appear.
This is what a group of researchers led by the French Gustave-Roussy cancer center states, who published a comment in the journal Nature.
Classifying tumors on the basis of their molecular characteristics would in fact help to quickly identify the most effective therapies.
"The idea that cancer is a molecular disease is now shared by everyone", Alberto Bardelli, scientific director of the Institute of Molecular Oncology Foundation in Milan and professor at the University of Turin, told ANSA.
"Oncogenes, for example (those genes that contain the information for proteins capable of inducing the malignant transformation of a cell), are the first evidence of characteristics that go beyond the conventional boundaries between tumors. In the future - he adds - there will always be more need for a multidisciplinary group of specialists: in the same room, in addition to doctors, other experts will also have to sit, such as those in Artificial Intelligence and molecular biologists".
According to Ifom researchers, "the path indicated by Fabrice André and his colleagues is the right one, but we are not there yet: today research requires an extra step, a collective effort".
Furthermore, "it will be necessary to train a new class of doctors. It is precisely with this objective that the Physician Scientist program was born, which involves Ifom together with the Airc Foundation for Cancer Research, University of Milan, National Cancer Institute, Niguarda Hospital and European Institute of Oncology in Milan: it is a program designed to offer future doctors the possibility of more complete training".
In fact, there is a growing disconnect between the classification of tumors by organ and the most recent developments in precision oncology, which instead uses the molecular characteristics of tumor and immune cells to guide therapies.
To illustrate the problem, researchers led by André highlight the case of the drug nivolumab, which targets the receptor of a protein that helps tumor cells escape attack by the immune system.
The drug is most effective when cells produce a large amount of this protein, yet millions of people who fit the profile did not have access to the therapy for years, because clinical trials had to be carried out for every conventional type of tumor.
"The authors of the article are right, however we must always rely on what the research says: we cannot see the disease only by organ but, at the same time, there are exceptions, in some cases it is a fundamental discriminant" , says Alberto Bardelli again.
"For example, some drugs that work for one do not work for another, despite similar molecular characteristics. The molecular approach can lead us to much faster approval of drugs, but without new doctors it will be difficult."
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