Targeted Therapies May Play a Greater Role in Pediatric Oncology

by John Otrompke

                A study attempted to match pediatric cancer patients with genomic treatments has been more successful than predicted, according to a presentation at the pre-meeting press cast of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) given on May 15.

                At the outset of the project (the National Cancer Institute-Children’s Oncology Group Pediatric Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice, or NCI-COG Pediatric MATCH) in 2017, researchers predicted that only 10% of children with refractory cancer would have a mutation-based match to genomic treatment, according to COG study chair Will Parsons, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics-oncology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

But an interim analysis of more than 400 patients screened has revealed a significantly higher match rate, with 24% of participants eligible to receive treatment with at least one drug, according to the ASCO press release.

“The last 10 years has been an incredible time,” said Parsons, who spoke at the presscast, discussing abstract 10011, “Identification of targetable molecular alterations in the NCI -COG Pediatric MATCH trial” (Parsons, Janeway, Patton, et al).

The median turn-around time was 15 days. But while 24% of enrollees had a match to an eligible treatment, only 10% (39 patients) had actually enrolled in a Pediatric MATCH treatment trial, according to the press release.

Children with cancer sometimes have a better prognosis than adults, yet fewer targeted therapies for cancer are tested in children than adults. (There are more than 150 U.S. approvals for targeted therapies in adult cancers). This situation led ASCO to identify research into precision therapies in pediatric cancers as a priority.

While the abstract presented at the presscast discussed the results of the Pediatric MATCH screening trial, there is also a treatment protocol, Parsons said.