Role of physician-scientist in precision medicine

Abstract

　There is an increasing demand to understand cancer biology in clinic as genomic analysis and artificial intelligence have been incorporated into clinical practice. Physician-scientists are physicians who devote to identify new knowledge about health and disease and deliver new patient care through research by paying significant proportion of their professional efforts. Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) tests were approved by Japanese government two years ago. CGPs aim to provide patients with molecular targeting agents by analyzing 100-300 cancer related genes, however, the proportion of patient who enjoy benefit from the result of CGP test were about 10%. Therefore, the primary role of physician-scientist is to identify and develop new targeted therapies. In addition, physician-scientist can contribute to interpret the results of CGP tests properly by taking advantage of their knowledge in basic molecular biology. Thus, physician-scientist is expected to be a hub in precision medicine.