N-of-1 Trial: Actionable Target Identification in Metastatic Cancer for Palliative Systemic Therapy

The metastatic lesions may be very different from the primary tumor because of intrinsic tumor heterogenity, clonal selection through metastatic process and following previous cytotoxic treatments. Metastatic tumor harboring actionable targets or signaling pathways may respond to inhibitory agents directed against specific aberrations irrespective of tumor origin. In the MetAction study, patients will receive therapy based on molecular aberrations in the metastatic lesions, actionable target identification (ATI), rather than on histological tumor type. The ATI rate in an unselected metastatic patient population is uncertain, and response rates associated with ATI based targeted therapy have hardly been reported. In this perspective, The MetAction study is essentially a feasibility study aiming to tailor metastatic cancer therapy based on genomic profiles.