title: A framework for understanding and targeting residual disease in oncogene-driven solid cancers.
abstract: Molecular targeted therapy has the potential to dramatically improve survival in patients with cancer. However, complete and durable responses to targeted therapy are rare in individuals with advanced-stage solid cancers. Even the most effective targeted therapies generally do not induce a complete tumor response, resulting in residual disease and tumor progression that limits patient survival. We discuss the emerging need to more fully understand the molecular basis of residual disease as a prelude to designing therapeutic strategies to minimize or eliminate residual disease so that we can move from temporary to chronic control of disease, or a cure, for patients with advanced-stage solid cancers. Ultimately, we propose a shift from the current reactive paradigm of analyzing and treating acquired drug resistance to a pre-emptive paradigm of defining the mechanisms that result in residual disease, to target and limit this disease reservoir.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.|Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.|Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Trever G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Bivona
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Medical Oncology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Doebele
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics