Manipal, 07^th April 2022: Dr. Mahadev Rao, Professor and Head of Department of Pharmacy Practice at Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), and his team, in collaboration with a team from the University of Kentucky (UK) Markey Cancer Center, have published an invited review article titled, "Integration of liquid biopsy and pharmacogenomics for precision therapy of EGFR mutant and resistant lung cancers" in the Molecular Cancer Journal. The paper explores new options for diagnosing lung cancer.

Currently, tumor biopsies are the most commonly used diagnostic tool for lung cancer. However, this paper talks about the enormous potential of liquid biopsies obtained from a blood sample to replace tumor biopsies that require patients to undergo a surgical procedure.

Along with Dr Mahadev Rao, the paper was jointly published with a team from the University of Kentucky (UK) Markey Cancer Center, headed by Jill Kolesar, pharm.D., Director of the Precision Medicine Center, co-chair of the Molecular Tumor Board for the UK Markey Cancer Center and a Professor in the UK College of Pharmacy and Dr. Vivek Rangnekar, Markey Cancer Center at UK associate director and Global Cancer Consortium founding chair. The paper included a multidisciplinary team of oncologists, researchers, clinical pharmacists, and basic scientists from MAHE. The study was also facilitated by the Global Cancer Consortium, which was formed in 2020. The consortium aims to promote partnerships in global cancer research, education, and outreach activities.

Speaking about this collaborative study facilitated by the Global Cancer Consortium Lt. Gen. (Dr.) M. D. Venkatesh, Vice-Chancellor of MAHE said "The Global Cancer Consortium has initiated collaborative transnational cutting edge research for developing next-generation scientists and promoting cancer health care and has produced several high-quality joint research publications. We are overjoyed by Dr. Rao and his team’s contribution to cancer research and wish them the best for their future endeavours”

Dr. Mahadev Rao, Professor, and Head of Department of Pharmacy Practice at Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, MAHE, and founding faculty of Global Cancer Consortium said “Liquid biopsies obtained from a blood test provides added advantages such as detection of genes responsible for cancer predisposition and drug metabolism, minimally invasive, reduced procedural complications, allows dynamic monitoring lung cancer treatment resistance and efficacy. Integrating liquid biopsy into cancer care and research provides enhanced personalized cancer care by selecting the right drug in precise doses, identifying the population-level genomic landscape, developing new drug molecules, and reducing the cost burden for cancer patients”

To read the article, please click the link below:

https://molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12943-022-01534-8

https://uknow.uky.edu/research/markey-global-cancer-consortium-studies-new-option-diagnosing-lung-cancer