Molecular Tumor Board

The molecular profiling of cancer is an important part of diagnostics and treatment planning in an increasing number of cancer types. In 2023 the FICAN East Molecular Profiling -development project founded the Gene-guided Cancer Treatment Working Group at Kuopio University Hospital, also known as the Molecular Tumor Board, MTB.

The chair of the MTB group is cancer specialist Okko-Sakari Kääriäinen from KYS Cancer Treatment Center. In addition, the group includes a gynecologist, a pediatric hemato-oncologist, a clinical geneticist, a pathologist, as well as specialists in molecular biology, bioinformatics and cancer molecular biology from the Genome Center of Eastern Finland (UEF).

The MTB group meets biweekly on Tuesdays, during which it discusses cases from the whole Eastern collaborative area. Among other things, the MTB group evaluates whether there is a suitable drug treatment for a patient and whether the patient is suitable for a clinical drug trial based on molecular profiling.

Gene-guided cancer treatment is a rapidly developing area of personal cancer medicine, in relation to which there are several national and international projects starting or going on. Examples of these include FINPROVE and iCAN, in which FICAN East is actively taking part in.