“It’s possible that some day we will no longer need to use chemotherapy”
Dr. Oliver Kisker, director of the Global Clinical Development unit at Merck’s Oncology business, on the future of tumor therapy.
What significance does the new test hold for tumor research?
It marks the first step on the path to customized treatments. As a result, when researching new active ingredients, we are now beginning to search for such individual differences at a much earlier stage. We’re also certain that we will discover more and more such parameters for predicting the success of individual therapies.
What types of cancer treatments might we be seeing in the future?
My vision for the future involves highly specialized substances that are effective only for a few patients. One day it may perhaps be possible to use a chip and a drop of blood to immediately study a large number of genetic characteristics linked to a specific patient. This will likely take decades, however; the first thing we need to do is gain a better understanding of the biology involved.
Will it really be possible to finance research on specific drugs that only work with a few patients?
That’s a problem we’re going to have to think about. At the same time, the more specific the effect of a drug is, the fewer the number of patients you will need to demonstrate the effectiveness — and this aspect will serve to lower the costs of clinical research.
Will it one day be possible to treat cancer without the severe side effects common with today’s drugs?
The new, targeted drugs we have today display significantly fewer side effects, and I also believe it’s possible that some day we will no longer need to use chemotherapy.
