How precision oncology is redefining hope for Australia’s toughest cancer cases

Pharma News: Omico, leading the nation’s largest precision oncology initiative, has launched an educational campaign aimed at empowering Australians with advanced, incurable, or poor-prognosis cancers. It seeks to deepen public understanding of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) and its role in advanced cancer management.

‘Meet the People that Matched‘ highlights the stories of four individuals diagnosed with advanced cancers who have benefited from Omico’s comprehensive genomic profiling. Through CGP, these patients were matched with targeted treatments, primarily through clinical trials, offering them renewed hope.

“We are extremely proud of this key initiative that we hope gives the community a greater understanding of the importance of comprehensive genomic screening and clinical trials of emerging and matched treatments.

“We are incredibly grateful to the four amazing individuals and their families who shared their challenging stories so openly and honestly with us,” said Professor David Thomas, Chief Science and Strategy Officer at Omico, and Director, Centre of Molecular Oncology, UNSW.

Ian Black, CEO of Omico, stated “We know that most, if not all, those living with cancer do not want to leave a stone unturned that might lead to better outcomes – so we hope this campaign equips them well to consider genomics effectively and constructively with their oncology team.”

A permanent dent in a big problem: Omico’s CEO Professor Thomas and Oncologist A/Professor Underhill

Omico’s MoST (Molecular Screening and Therapeutics Study) program has shown that more than a third of its patients (37.5%) carry cancer biomarkers with strong clinical evidence supporting therapeutic benefits.

In fact, data from the first 3,383 patients enrolled in MoST revealed that those who received matched therapies based on these biomarkers had a median survival time that was double that of patients receiving unmatched therapy.

The broader data collected by Omico, encompassing referrals of over 15,000 patients, reveals that nearly three out of four (73%) of these patients with difficult-to-treat cancers had an actionable genetic biomarker identified. This discovery provides critical information that could lead to personalised, potentially life-extending treatments.

“We hope this campaign will help to forge strong patient and community recognition of the significant role precision oncology plays and create active conversations between patients and their oncologist that ensure it’s applied early. That will be a very successful outcome,” added Professor Thomas.

By the end of 2025, Omico aims to ensure that over 30,000 Australians will have the opportunity to utilise free CGP through its Cancer Screening Program (CaSP). To date, more than 15,000 people have been referred by over 800 clinicians, marking significant progress toward this goal.

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