(EJC, 2021)
By John Hickman, Ian Tannock, Lisa Hutchinson and Lydie Meheus
This paper discusses two recent policy documents by the European Union, ‘Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’ and its accompanying ‘Conquering Cancer: Mission Possible’. These articulate broad policies aimed at reducing cancer mortality across Europe. The focus for cancer treatment in these manifestos is the expansion of personalised cancer medicine (PCM). We address the limits of PCM in pathology-driven and pathology-agnostic PCM, briefly discussing the results of umbrella and basket trials. We suggest that the complexity, plasticity and genetic heterogeneity of advanced cancers will continue to thwart the impact of PCM, limiting it to specific pathologies, or rare subsets of them, and that caution regarding the advancement of PCM is justified. Policymakers should be wary of the hype of lobbyists, who do not acknowledge the limits of PCM.