The Surgical Specimen Is the Personalized Part of Personalized Cancer Medicine
In this dawning era of molecular medicine, surgeons and pathologists are playing a more pivotal role in cancer medicine. They are the custodians of the specimens and therefore the molecules that represent the personalized part of personalized cancer medicine. Surgeons will continue to cure cancer with greater success rates through earlier detection and excision, but as the custodiams of the tissue, they will also be central to improving cancer management through molecularly targeted interventions.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?
artid=2711907
As we enter the era of personalized cancer medicine, it is time to take a fresh look at how we evaluate treatments for cancer patients. More emphasis is needed matching treatment to the patient. Patients would certainly have a better chance of success had their cancer been chemo-sensitive rather than chemo-resistant, where it is more apparent that chemotherapy improves the survival of patients, and where identifying the most effective chemotherapy would be more likely to improve survival.
http://cancerfocus.org/
personalized_cancer_medicine_is_here_now/35649 
