New cancer gene mobile app launched

The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has launched a new, free mobile application called My Cancer Genome, designed as a searchable, regularly updated source of information about cancer genomics and treatments for health care providers and researchers.

“We know that cancer is not a single homogenous disease, and individual patients may have specific gene mutations or alterations that are best treated with therapies targeted to those alterations,” Mia Levy, MD, PhD, and co-founder of the center’s My Cancer Genome tool, said in a press release. “We launched this new app to provide the latest information about targeted therapies to physicians, patients, researchers and caregivers.”

Mia Levy

Described as “an online precision cancer medicine tool,” the information includes targeted therapies for treating genetic alterations in certain types of cancer, gene mutations and fusions, and expands on information released in a drug list app released in June 2013.

The app is searchable by cancer type, commercial or experimental drug name, gene alterations and their associated clinical trials. Physicians and scientists from 22 institutions in 10 countries update content accessed by the app and on the My Cancer Genome website, which covers hundreds of mutations in 19 types of cancer. Favorite searches can be saved to revisit later, and pages can be bookmarked for quick access.

Currently, the app is available for the iPad and iPhone and can be downloaded in the Apple iTunes store.