Ricardo Alvarez on personalized medicine
From Ricardo Alvarez, ESMO 2018 – Mutational Landscape from Clinical Sequencing · · Touch Medical Media
“Patients with molecular targeted therapy respond better, and the personalized medicine program helps physicians identify clinical trials, which has been very well received.”
On , Ricardo Alvarez, Managing Director of Operation Merit Medical Tijuana at MERIT MEDICAL SYSTEMS INC, spoke about personalized medicine during Ricardo Alvarez, ESMO 2018 – Mutational Landscape from Clinical Sequencing on Touch Medical Media.
About Ricardo Alvarez
Ricardo Alvarez, who previously served as Medical Director of the Breast Cancer Center and Director of Cancer Research at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, has discussed the use of next-generation genomic sequencing in advanced cancer patients. At ESMO 2018, he presented data from approximately 8,000 samples from 7,600 patients collected over five years, noting that 28 to 30 percent of mutations were actionable and could be treated with targeted therapy. He stated that patients receiving biomarker-directed treatment responded better and that the program helped identify clinical trials, though he cited cost and limited trial access as barriers, with some patients receiving off-label treatments. Alvarez has also described his work at Clinica Esperanza, an HIV clinic in San Francisco serving mostly Latino, uninsured, or underinsured patients. He outlined a multidisciplinary model of care that includes harm reduction counseling and artistic programs to improve self-esteem and medication adherence. He noted that advocacy efforts helped over 120 patients obtain political asylum, which he said transformed their lives by enabling employment and other opportunities.