We are now finally poised to see translation of cancer genomics into the clinical setting, effectively transforming patient care. Specific goals of this meeting are to:
1) Provide an overview of computational tools, any gaps in variant detection capabilities and their challenges for clinical implementation;
2) Discuss specific approaches to identify gene-therapy combinations, specifically addressing the difficulty of assessing the impact of DNA mutations on protein function;
3) Identify the significant efforts ongoing in blood-based (“liquid”) biopsy of patients;
4) Present current efforts to utilize genomics of individual tumors to inform immunotherapy development;
5) Discuss efforts at data integration, across “omic” platforms, and also the integration of genomic data with more conventional pathology-based evidence/data.
The anticipated outcomes will be the exchange of ideas among international participants regarding how genomics will impact cancer care and clinical practice and what gaps exist in existing approaches, as well as development of new collaborations and new enthusiasm for helping to build on the potential of genome-guided approaches to cancer medicine.