UC researcher focuses on personalized cancer care

Dr. Davendra Sohal says if there’s a new treatment worth testing, he’ll try it.

The associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and medical oncologist with UC Health who specializes in personalized medicine and clinical trials for gastrointestinal cancers says experimental therapies are the hope for better treatments tomorrow.

“Clinical trials come in all shapes and sizes,” Sohal says. “We just have to find the right fit for each individual patient.”

Personalized medicine, sometimes called precision medicine, holds great promise in cancer treatment. Since there are so many variants to cancer — truly, no two tumors are alike — Sohal says his team at UC, as well as researchers across the globe, are focusing on tailoring treatments to the individual, while also looking for other, novel treatments to add to the list of choices.

“It’s like a menu in a restaurant,” he says. “We are moving away from the prix fixe menu, standard of care for every patient, and are moving toward an a la carte menu, where we select different methods of treatment based on the individual tumor genes.”    

Sohal points out the difference between personalized oncology and the personal genetics arenas; he and his team at UC look at the genes of tumors — the pathways, cells and molecules which caused its formation and keep it alive. They take the biopsied tissue from the tumor and send it to a specialized lab to determine its makeup, helping them determine the next best steps in treatment. Sohal's work is part of the innovation agenda in President Neville Pinto's Next Lives Here strategic direction. 

“We want to see what went wrong to cause the cancer to form and then figure out what drug or what therapy we have available that can target and treat it, for that particular tumor in that particular person,” he says. “This could be an approved drug or maybe an investigational drug that is used in other cancers but may benefit this patient who has another type of cancer.”

“This could potentially change the way we treat patients, which is exciting,” Sohal says. “We’re also studying new drugs for cancer that has spread — we want to find the best, individualized therapy with the least side effects for each patient. Instead of giving a drug to everyone that only works for 30% of the population, we’re doing the work ahead of time, sparing the other 70% from enduring a treatment that will not work for them.”

Sohal adds that the team approach to care, which also includes working with community doctors to put their patients on clinical trials, is what brings success.

“Personalized oncology and treatment offered through these innovative trials are how we make progress,” he says. “It’s how we move the needle.”

Featured photo is courtesty of Unsplash.