In many cases, the mutation impacts only a small percentage of patients. For example, only 3 percent of lung cancer patients have alterations in ALK. But multiple FDA-approved drugs exist to improve survival in these particular patients.
"In current practice, we do have drugs aimed at very infrequent alterations," Spratt says. "If we can't detect a mutation present at a lower frequency, we wouldn't be able to develop a treatment against it."
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Many studies have demonstrated how cancer behaves differently in different racial and ethnic groups. It's also known that certain cancer types are more common or more aggressive among certain races.
For one example, about 50 percent of Asians with lung cancer have a mutation in EGFR. Studies show the drug gefitinib is effective only in patients with an EGFR mutation.
The study authors suggest more collaborative efforts including industry, government and academia are necessary to collect larger numbers of tumor samples from diverse racial and ethnic groups. As precision medicine becomes increasingly important in cancer treatment, identifying mutations will allow researchers to target and adjust clinical trials.
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