Currently, precision medicine is mostly implemented in the field of oncology (so-called precision oncology). It is an innovative approach to treatment that allows to create for cancer patients the individual treatment plans based on the biological characteristics of their tumors. This principle has been successfully applied to both adult and pediatric patients with solid tumors.
The fundamental technology of precision oncology is next-generation sequencing (NGS), which is used to describe the biological properties of an individual cancer genome.
The biological properties of the tumor are subsequently discussed in the context of the patient's overall clinical condition at a multidisciplinary board called Molecular Tumor Board (MTB) with the aim of creating an individualized therapeutic plan based on the biological properties of the tumor. The specializations represented in the MTB usually include a clinical oncologist, a pathologist, a molecular biologist, a medical geneticist, a clinical pharmacologist, and potentially other specialists.
In the field of hematological oncology, molecular diagnostics has been a part of treatment standards for decades. In its highly individualized form, which is characteristic of precision medicine, it is gradually being implemented here as well, although not yet to the same extent as in solid tumors. Therefore, at the Internal Hematology and Oncology Department, University Hospital Brno and Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University (LF MU), other multidisciplinary indication committees have been established, such as the CAR-T Therapy Indication Committee, the Transplantation Committee, and the Indication Committee for Patients with Acute or Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Thanks to its experience and technical equipment, Internal Hematology and Oncology Department has become a center of the European Reference Network for Rare Hematological Diseases, ERN EuroBloodNet.