New drug that is first to treat cancer based on genetics, not location.
Last May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it had approved Keytruda, an immunotherapy, for patients who have genetic glitches in so-called “mismatch repair” genes. Mutations in these genes mean their cells don’t fully repair errors in DNA. That can trigger cancer, but it also makes their tumors particularly susceptible to drugs like Keytruda, which is marketed by Merck.
Precision medicine is the idea that medical treatments should be personalized to an individual’s genetic makeup, or other information about them. But up until now, cancer therapies have all been approved to treat cancer based on where it is located, such as in the breast or lung.
Keytruda itself costs around $150,000 a year.