PLATON (Platform for Analyzing Targetable Mutations) is designed to improve personalized therapy for patients in different cancer entities, such as in hepatocellular cancer (HCC), intra- and extrahepatic cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCA), gallbladder carcinoma (GBCA), pancreatic cancer (PanCa) and esophagogastric cancer (EC/GC), and elevate the treatment guidance within its framework. The key to understand the mechanisms in initiation, progression and response to treatment of cancer is the data integration of genetic mutational signatures with medical and physiological data of diseased cohorts.
PLATON is a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study with biobanking and does not define any medical intervention or evaluate the efficacy or safety of the treatment decision made by the investigator.In a first approach PLATON's pilot-study assess genomic profiling in gastrointestinal cancer therapy and the frequencies of targetable mutations including Tumor Mutational Burden (TMB) and Microsatellite Instability Status (MSI), performing Next-generation deep sequencing (NGS) using the Foundation Medicine assays on tumor specimen and EDTA-whole blood samples. Another important objective of PLATON's pilot project is to evaluate whether and how many patients are treated based on their genomic profiles.
The pilot-study starts with the national-wide enrolment of 200 participants of both sexes and ages over 18 at 40 german study sites. The long-term vision is to enable cancer patients to receive the best available, scientifically founded, biomarker-based care, tailored to his or her individual needs
