Stacy D’Andre, MD
SAN FRANCISCO – Sutter Health is enrolling patients to the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization (TAPUR™) study, a national, prospective, non-randomized clinical trial determining the safety and efficacy of approved, targeted anticancer drugs.
“The TAPUR Study enrolls patients with advanced cancer who are not responding to standard treatment and who have genomic alterations in their tumors that can be targeted with a TAPUR™ study drug,” says Stacy D’Andre, MD, Executive Chair of the Sutter Cancer Research Consortium, Medical Director at Sutter Cancer Center, and Principle Investigator for the study at Sutter. “By offering this study through the Sutter Cancer Research Consortium, we are providing our patients with novel therapies that they would otherwise not have access to.”
For patients with advanced cancers, the study brings new hope for effective treatment after other lines of therapy have stopped working. Study participants undergo genomic testing to determine the specific mutation of their tumor. The study then matches the patient to a targeted therapy already approved for a different cancer.
“Cancer research focused on understanding how to overcome resistance to treatment is ongoing. Understanding what drives a particular tumor growth is essential to develop more personalized, effective therapies,” says Dr. D’Andre. The TAPUR™ Study, offered at Sutter sites via the Sutter Cancer Research Consortium, is studying whether drugs that are FDA approved for certain indications would work in treating other types of cancer based on a tumor’s specific genomic variation.
“We are thrilled to support patients who can benefit from access to targeted therapies made available through this unique precision medicine trial,” says Jamey Schmidt, Sutter’s Director of Clinical Research. “One of the goals of the study is to gather data on the efficacy of targeted therapies in specific clinical situations and for patients in whom previous therapies have been ineffective.”
Sutter Health is the only hospital network in Northern California offering the trial to patients. Fifty-seven Sutter cancer patients are enrolled to date.*
TAPUR™ is the first clinical trial conducted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world’s leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer.
*As of October 15, 2019, 94 Sutter patients are now enrolled to the study.
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