{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 406: Drug Resistance Biomarkers and Their Impact on Cancer Treatment Choices","description":" \u201cOur goal of precision oncology has been to shift to tailored therapies that can help to improve treatment efficacy and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Resistance biomarker testing can help the care team to detect these genomic changes that the tumor may have acquired during therapy that makes the cells resistant to therapy. This information can be extremely helpful when we\u2019re talking about making choices about second-line or subsequent-line therapy,\u201d ONS member Danielle Fournier, DNP, APRN, AGPCNP-BC, AOCNP\u00ae, advanced practice RN at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS\u00ae, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about drug resistance biomarker testing. This podcast episode is sponsored by AstraZeneca. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications. Music Credit: \u201cFireflies and Stardust\u201d by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Episode Notes  This episode is not eligible for NCPD credit.  ONS Podcast\u2122 episodes: Episode 389: Biomarker Testing for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Episode 373: Biomarker Testing in Prostate Cancer Episode 169: How Biomarker Testing Drives the Use of Targeted Therapies ONS Voice articles: Help Your Patients Understand Biomarker Resistance Testing Key Patient Education Points for Biomarker Resistance Testing Quick Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Drug Resistance in Cancer? Quick Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Somatic Biomarker Resistance Testing? When Targeted Therapy Stops Working, What\u2019s Next? Discover How Biomarker Resistance Testing Opens New Doors ONS Biomarker Database Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Tumor-Agnostic Therapies Reshaping Cancer Care ONS book: Understanding Genomic and Hereditary Cancer Risk: A Handbook for Oncology Nurses ONS course: Genomic Foundations for Precision Oncology ONS Genomics and Precision Oncology Learning Library American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Access to Biomarker Testing page White paper: The Landscape of Biomarker Testing Coverage in the United States Find out which states are currently discussing biomarker testing bills and how you can advocate for them through ONS. To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode \u201cWe know that biomarkers are playing an ever more important role in cancer care, and really, their use can range anywhere from helping us to confirm a given diagnosis, understand a patient\u2019s cancer susceptibility or risk, evaluate prognosis, as well as personalize treatment recommendations. \u2026 But in some cases, though, biomarkers can also help us to avoid therapies that are not likely to work. We also call these drug resistance biomarkers. These are those biomarkers that signify that a tumor is unlikely to respond to a given therapy.\u201d TS 1:50 \u201cResistance to cancer therapies is one of the most common issues that arises during cancer treatment. Because the populations of cancer cells within a tumor can be very diverse, when a given drug kills the cells that are sensitive to that therapy, it can also eventually leave behind resistant tumor cells, which can grow and multiply over time. So this can ultimately lead to a point where the treatment that was initially effective is no longer able to control the disease.\u201d TS 4:33 \u201cWhile costs have come down, there can still be a cost associated with biomarker testing, and in some cases, this can be considered a barrier to care. What patients pay out of pocket can vary widely depending on their insurance coverage. So we have some data that was published from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and this was published a few years ago in 2023, which showed the average allowed unit cost to insurers per biomarker test ranged anywhere from about $79 for patients who were on Medicaid to about $224 for large-group, self-insured patients.\u201d TS 10:03 \u201cThere\u2019s research underway that\u2019s looking not only at genomic changes\u2014so DNA changes that impact drug resistance\u2014but how other substances such as RNA and proteins within the cell can also contribute to drug resistance. And this kind of falls into not just genomics but multiomics field. I have no doubt whatsoever that the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is likely going to play a large role in drug resistance research. And really, these tools can help researchers to analyze complex data sets, identify novel resistance biomarkers, predict resistance patterns, as well as help to develop treatments that may overcome some of those resistance mechanisms.\u201d TS 17:00 ","author_name":"The ONS Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/onsvoice.libsyn.com\/website","html":"