Genetic Test for Predicting Radiation Sensitivity
A member of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, Aaron O. Williams, MD, is the founder and medical director of Athens Cancer Center. Aaron O. Williams, MD, has completed a number of research projects during his nearly 30-year career. He chaired the session on recent advancements at the 2015 H3C: Health Sciences Innovation Conference. Recently, the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics, also known as the Red Journal, published the results of new research work conducted by the Moffitt Cancer Center. Researchers from Moffitt were working towards developing a more personalized therapy for cancer, and they discovered that certain gene expression patterns in the tumors may be the key to determining how a patient will respond to radiation therapy. Based on this discovery, researchers developed the first genetic test that can predict a tumor’s sensitivity to radiation. The study was conducted using a radiation sensitivity index, or RSI, a system that was previously developed by Moffitt researchers to predict tumor sensitivity. In the current study, researchers looked at 1,362 primary colon tumors and 704 metastatic colon tumors, and attempted to determine their sensitivity to radiation. They found that metastatic colon tumors demonstrated a higher level of resistance to radiation than primary tumors, and that location may be the deciding factor on how tumors respond to the therapy. These results indicate that RSI may be an effective way of optimizing radiation therapy for individual patients to increase treatment success rates.