Precision Oncology within the NHS
The United Kingdom has been investing in precision oncology for years now and it is becoming more prevalent. The NHS provides funding for precision oncology research in order to improve care for cancer patients. This includes the development of new drugs and treatments, as well as high-tech imaging techniques and genetic analysis. One example of this could be the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Center which is hosted by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust & The University of Manchester, as well as other partnerships with other NHS Foundation Trusts. [5] (NIHR, 2022) Greater Manchester has a high cancer burden, so they are creating individualized treatment plans for their patients that focus on their particular cancers. This method increasingly calls for thorough molecular study of their malignancy in order to choose the best course of action. Although targeted therapies enhance patient outcomes, cancer frequently develops resistance, making it crucial to continuously track a patient’s tumor status over time. Invasive tumor biopsies are not always possible to repeat throughout a course of treatment. The creation and applications of “liquid biopsies”, which aim to obtain information about a patient’s tumor status from a straightforward blood test, is a crucial component for the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Center and a way for them to capitalize on their capabilities on the global stage. In order to identify which patients to treat and reduce the risk of treatment toxicities, they are also identifying biomarkers to enable the use of innovative medicines meant to activate the patient’s immune system to fight the cancer. Last but not least, NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Center are also organizing intriguing studies in which patients who have had their tumors surgically removed can donate blood in their neighborhood and have it shipped to their laboratories so that they can assess their risk of tumor recurrence. The precision cancer medicine researchers are based at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, which sees about 15,000 new cancer patients a year and administers over 45,000 treatments. The reason they are so quickly able to translate research from the lab to the patient’s bedside is the integrated partnership between The University of Manchester, NHS Trusts, CRUK Manchester Center, CRUK Manchester Institute, and Manchester’s NIHR/CRUK Experimental Cancer Medicines Center, which enrolls the most patients in clinical trials across the network.
What Rayca Precision can offer to Cancer Care
The way Rayca Precision identifies, monitor, and predict tumour behaviour is being revolutionised by precision oncology, a novel approach to cancer care. Rayca Precision uses precision oncology, which coordinates patient care with the patient’s disease, biological profile, and traits, to identify and manage cancer in a revolutionary way. Along with working with physicians and oncologists to ensure that every patient has the best chance of responding to cancer therapy.
Services of Rayca Precision in Oncology
Tumor origin prediction
Our genome has a wealth of information, which is why Rayca has devised a method of using it to help with patient diagnosis in the field of oncology. Rayca must first collect a blood sample from the patient, which contains over 50,000 expression genes, in order to assess the patient’s gene expressions and look for data patterns in biomarkers. With the aid of AI technology, data pipelines tailored to particular raw data are used to examine this genetic information. This data can tell us a lot of things, including how quickly a particular tumor has already grown or how quickly it will grow in the future. We can decode data in a way that has never been feasible before with the aid of AI, which will enable ground-breaking advances in precision oncology. Oncologists would need to go through tens of thousands of patterns of data without the use of AI technology, which would be increasingly ineffective and would significantly delay the diagnosing stage. Fortunately, AI is developing swiftly, and the amount of data we feed it keeps growing. New findings in the field of diagnostics and staging, which will be applied to evaluate various situations, will be made as we continue to feed our AI system more sophisticated data. With these two new things in mind, Rayca Precision anticipates that patient staging, and diagnosis will continue to improve over time.
Prediction of metastasis occurrence
We can see metastasis as a very dangerous cancer consequence in a variety of circumstances. Actually, it’s estimated that 90% of cancer deaths are caused by metastasis. Rayca Precision can determine whether a particular condition is curable and what has to be done to assure a patient’s survival by using AI technology as well as genetic markers found in blood plasma. This screening service works by utilizing a new algorithm that targets biomarkers particular to the metastatic process. Based on the information provided, Rayca uses this screening to estimate how quickly a tumor is developing now, how quickly it has previously grown, and how quickly it will grow going forward. The capacity to diagnose the metastatic phenomenon has incredible potential for a higher patient survival rate. Rayca will be able to diagnose the progression of metastatic cancers more quickly as more information becomes available over time, providing patients more time to develop an effective treatment strategy.
Single and paired drug response prediction
It has been discovered in the last ten years or so that medications can have negative effects on patients, and that these effects can be anticipated by looking at the patient’s genetic markers. Pharmaceutical medications are believed to have effects that are consistent from person to person for the majority of history. However, new research has revealed that a person’s genetic profile might affect how they react to specific chemicals. In pharmaceutical medicine, this discovery has been ground-breaking, and the potential applications are practically limitless. The best appropriate treatment for a specific patient might be chosen based on genetic information when it comes to oncology medicine. Precision prescribing, which considers every facet of a patient’s health to determine how they could respond to specific medications and at what doses they might be most responsive to, is made possible by the study of pharmacogenomics.
The Pro’s and Con’s with Precision Medicine in the NHS
Precision medicine is a new way of looking at health and disease, with the goal of providing better diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. It is based on the idea that every person’s genome (their DNA) contains information that can be used to improve their health. The future of precision medicine in the NHS will be shaped by a number of factors. The first is how much funding there will be for such research, and for what purposes it will be used. The second is how well precision medicine technologies are developed and how quickly they come into use in clinical practice. Thirdly, we need to consider whether people are willing to share their genetic data with scientists for research purposes. Precision medicine is the next step in health care as it is a new way of understanding and treating diseases, based on the genetic makeup of an individual. It is also a way to improve the lives of people with chronic diseases by providing them with better treatments and more personalized care. The NHS has been working to make precision medicine available for all patients since 2013, when it launched its Genomics England Program. This program aims to make sure that everyone who needs it can access precision medicine services as quickly as possible, so they can live longer and healthier lives.
Personalised Medicine in the NHS
From the words of the NHS, imagine being able to receive individualized treatment based on what would be most effective for you, receive a faster diagnosis of a condition based on your particular circumstances, and experience very few or no side effects at all. You could even move away from just treating an illness once you are ill and toward promoting health by foreseeing certain conditions and preventing them from developing. [1] (NHS, 2022) This is the foundation of personalized medicine, and by comprehending the impact our DNA has on our health, we can change the way we approach patient care and better implement prediction and prevention of diseases with more precise diagnoses. Patterns that can help determine our individual risk of developing disease, detect illnesses earlier, and determine the most effective interventions to help improve our health – be they medications, lifestyle changes, or even simple dietary changes – can be found by combing and analyzing information about our genome with other clinical diagnostic data which helps assist the NHS in shifting their attention from merely managing illness to promoting better health. Personalized medicine is not a novel idea. Throughout the history of medicine, clinicians have worked to personalize care, customized to each patient’s unique health needs, but it has never been able to forecast how each patient’s body would respond to a particular intervention or to determine which among us is at danger of contracting a disease. As we combine newer approaches like whole genome sequencing, data and informatics, and wearable technologies, new opportunities are suddenly opening up. Moving toward a time of genuinely individualized treatment is made possible by the links between these developments.
The Beginning of the 100,000 Genomes Project
Many conditions seen in clinical medicine, including inherited cancer, polygenic illnesses, and cystic fibrosis, have a genetic foundation. The capacity, speed, and affordability of genome sequencing have been altered by new sequencing technologies, offering improvements and potential for application in clinical medicine within the healthcare system; yet this expansion calls for additional infrastructure. As part of the British government’s Life Sciences Strategy, UK Prime Minister David Cameron launched a whole genome sequencing effort in December 2012. The 100,000 Genomes Project’s primary goal is to sequence 100,000 genomes of people with cancer, uncommon diseases, and infectious diseases and to link the sequence data to a standardized and comprehensive report of diagnosis treatment, and outcomes. The output of this initiative will be made accessible for research in academia and industry, including clinical institutions supporting the UK healthcare system. A number of organisations in England and Northern Ireland, as well as research groups and funding organisations, collaborate with Genomics England, which is in charge of the 100,000 Genomes Project, to ensure that the new research capacity is appropriate for its intended use and that data is collected and managed in accordance with the necessary standards. [3] (NHS, 2022)
Bioinformatics within the 100,000 Genomes Project
Bioinformatics is necessary to create a scalable sequencing platform since it makes this service generally accessible inside the healthcare system. Platforms and automated processes for processing, quality assurance, and storage have been established by Genomics England. Access to data resources makes it feasible to create new information, analytical techniques, medications, diagnostics, and gadgets. Since this project has been completed for quite some time now, we now know that it offers clinical diagnoses as well as fresh, more potent therapies and effective treatment methods for a variety of people who have genetic disorders that lead to diseases. There is a database of genetic sequences that is regularly updated throughout time with data for examination by researchers with the patients’ permission.
The Result of the Project
More than 70,000 people were signed up for the initiative in April 2019, and more than 55,000 genomes were sequenced. More than 10,000 reports with a full genomic analysis were sent back to the healthcare system. The development of the data pipeline, the advancement of technology, and the development of specialists were all expedited by this project. At the conclusion of the project, the service will offer genome sequencing for accredited, centralized health systems, with data recorded to enable ongoing development of this endeavor. Late in 2018, the project was completed, and over 100,000 sequences were produced. Discoveries were made in 1 patient for every 5 individuals with rare conditions, and in around 50% of cancer cases they had potential therapy. Numerous patient vignettes that were pertinent to the study, such as those who had been diagnosed and received prospective therapy, were published in articles or on the project website, demonstrating the significance of the experiment in the lives of the patients who took part. The initiative also served as the foundation for using whole genome sequencing in the healthcare system, resulting in increasingly precise diagnoses and focused treatments that have improved many patients’ quality of life.
Summary of the Project
The NHS was forming alliances with academics and businesses through the 100,000 Genomes Project and the NHS Genomic Medicine Service in order to decode the human genome in patients with cancer and uncommon disorders and to realize the potential of personalized medicine. This will make it easier to diagnose illnesses where none previously existed, forecast how they will evolve in the future, and, where appropriate, identify treatments. The aims of the 100,000 Genomes Project were to firstly make genomics part of routine healthcare in the UK by working closely with the NHS to integrate whole genome sequencing. Secondly, to enhance genomic healthcare research by creating the largest genomic healthcare data resource in the world and thirdly to uncover answers for participants, both now and in the future through genomic-level analysis of conditions. The British government launched the 100,000 Genomes Project to sequence and research the function of human genes in health and disease. Although the recruitment process was finished in December 2018, research and analysis is still going on. Many patients with cancer and unusual disorders have already benefited from the volunteers’ contributions in the form of concrete findings. [2] (Genomics England, 2022) New tests and applications for precision medicine are constantly being produced as a result of industrial and academic advancements, which are typically encouraged by global government programs. One of the most dynamic and cutting-edge areas of medical technology is precision medicine. It’s intriguing to observe how governments are pushing business in this direction. The UK government, one of the first to recognize the potential of precision medicine and launch Genomics England as part of the NHS’s 65th birthday celebrations in 2013, is home to several notable innovation centers. The 100,000 Genome Project’s initial goal was to sequence the genomes of 100,000 people in order to create a database of sequences that could be used to diagnose patients with incredibly rare disorders, some of whom could have gone their whole entire lives without receiving a diagnosis. The UK government has expanded this program and will now provide whole genome analysis as part of standard care to all very unwell children who are suspected of having a hereditary disease or cancer. However, the UK is not alone in wanting to win the precision medicine race [4] (Salisbury, 2022) as the USA and China are investing more and more into precision medicine as well as their own initiatives.
