Cancer treatment has never been more effective, meaning more people are surviving cancer and living longer. However, effectiveness is only one part of the story. Two patients can receive the same treatment for the same cancer and have entirely different experiences. One may tolerate treatment well and respond positively, while another may develop serious side effects that can significantly affect their quality of life. Researchers are finding that some of these differences can be traced to a patient’s genetics and can be predicted before treatment is chosen and even begins.
Cancer Survival Statistics in the US
Surviving cancer is more common today than ever. The American Cancer Society reported last year that the five-year survival rate in the United States had climbed to 70 percent from 49 percent in the mid-1970s—a steady climb over the decades.1 That progress is expected to continue, with positive effects for the roughly 2.1 million Americans projected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2026.2 Newer therapies, improved screening and prevention, and advanced treatment techniques are helping many patients become long-term survivors.1
Cancer Treatment is Being Better Personalized
Over the past decade, cancer treatment has evolved from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to one that is more precise and personalized.
Innovations in radiation therapy now allow for highly targeted treatment. Newer chemotherapy drugs are more effective and better tolerated. And new treatments like immunotherapy stimulate the body’s own immune system to better recognize and fight its cancer cells.
Tumor biomarkers have also added an important layer to personalizing cancer care. Measured before treatment begins, they can help match patients with therapies most likely to be effective for their cancer. HER2 status, for example, helps guide treatment selection for breast cancer patients to receive a targeted medicine, called Herceptin.
Treating the Cancer, Not the Patient
Despite all of these important advances, a critical gap in cancer care still remains. Existing tools are designed to guide treatment based on features of the tumor and focus on getting rid of it. However, none are designed to predict or focus on how the rest of an individual patient will respond to cancer therapy.
As more cancer patients survive their cancer, bridging that gap becomes increasingly important. For patients, two questions about their treatment are equally important: will it get rid of my cancer, and will I be able to tolerate it without serious harm? Finding answers to both is one of the most pressing needs in cancer care today.
Treating the Patient and the Cancer: The Role of Your Genetics
The answers, it turns out, may lie in your genetics. Inherited DNA differences in all of your cells, not just things found in the tumor itself, can predict how your body will respond to cancer treatment.
Central to this new research is a class of small molecules called microRNAs (miRNAs). When the body encounters stress—such as DNA damage or an immune response triggered by cancer treatment—miRNAs help regulate your body’s response. Therefore, it makes sense that your miRNAs, and any differences you may have in them compared to other people’s miRNAs, will help predict how you respond to cancer treatment.
These differences in miRNAs or in the regions where they interact are called microRNA variants, or mirSNPs.
Specific mirSNPs, or the unique combination of mirSNPs known as a “mirSNP signature,” can predict both a patient’s likelihood of tumor response to a given therapy, as well as their risk of experiencing serious treatment-related side effects—before treatment begins.
The Predictive Power of mirSNPs
Dr. Joanne Weidhaas’s research on miRNAs started in 2006, when she co-discovered the KRAS-variant, the first mirSNPs found and shown to affect both the risk of cancer and how patients respond to treatment. She then founded MiraKind in 2013 to build on that discovery.
Since then, MiraKind’s research has identified hundreds of mirSNPs that can be used across multiple cancer types and treatment settings, including chemotherapy,3-6 radiation therapy,7-12 and immunotherapy,13-16 to predict how a patient will respond to treatment.
That kind of information can shape the entire course of treatment and influence what life looks like afterward. This research aims to make that possible, as does the effort to get these genetic tests to patients who need them now.
From Research to Clinical Applications
That effort is already underway. MiraKind’s research registries and early access programs give patients and their physicians access to select tests while providing feedback on how the results inform care. That input helps shape these tools so that, when they are ready to become more widely available, patients have the most useful information possible before treatment begins and can make decisions that best support their quality of life after cancer.
Learn more about our research registries.
A More Complete Picture Before Treatment Starts
Finishing cancer treatment is a major milestone, but for many survivors, its effects can last long after therapy has ended. The decisions made before treatment begins can shape what comes next.
Genetic testing is giving patients and their doctors an additional layer of information to help ensure those decisions reflect not just what may work against the cancer, but also what works best for the patient’s body. For patients facing those decisions today, that information can make a meaningful difference in treatment and in life after it.
References
- https://www.cancer.org/research/acs-research-news/people-are-now-living-longer-after-a-cancer-diagnosis.html
- https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.70043
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3342446/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4155520/
- https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/jco.2014.32.15_suppl.8135
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4207729/
- https://www.redjournal.org/article/S0360-3016(25)03499-6/fulltext
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8979583/
- https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2023.41.16_suppl.5089
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9984404/
- https://aacrjournals.org/clincancerres/article/32/4_Supplement/PS1-07-09/773424/Abstract-PS1-07-09-Germline-microRNA-based
- https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.11538
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7169020/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8804679/
- https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.2661
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12306077/
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