NHS patients will test a cutting-edge tumour profiler that aims to revolutionise cancer care by choosing treatment based on genetics, not on the part of the body where the disease occurs. Doctors hope the method will ultimately become routine as they shift towards increasingly personalised treatment for cancer, using DNA analysis to discover which drugs are likely to be most effective. As understanding of the underlying biology of cancer becomes more sophisticated, an increasing number of targeted drugs have been developed that aim to disrupt key pathways seen in cancers with specific features. For example, women with breast cancer are tested for the HER2 protein, and if they test positive will be given Herceptin, which blocks the effects of the protein and slows growth of the tumour. The profiling system, known as Caris molecular intelligence, “has taken that concept to a new level”, said Geoff Hall, an oncologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, who is leading the trial. “Rather than do a single test, they do a profile of many tests, based on all the biomarkers that are associated with some response to treatment for cancer.” (...)