On October 31, 2024, PMC published the appended letter in The Wall Street Journal in response to an earlier article in the Journal titled “Cancer Care Is Getting Personal. Local Doctors Can’t Keep Up.” The letter is available to subscribers on the Journal‘s website, here.

Research from the Personalized Medicine Coalition shows that six of 13 of the new cancer drugs that the FDA approved in 2023 are designed to target molecular vulnerabilities present only on certain subtypes of tumors. Yet we also know that fewer than 40% of advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients, for example, are receiving the drugs that would benefit them.

In part because sophisticated diagnostic testing is required to identify which patients might benefit from personalized medicines, dozens of available targeted therapies remain out of reach for many patients. Clearer reimbursement policies for diagnostic testing would help, as would more educational support for clinicians, so they can target the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.