Discovering novel valid biomarkers and drugs in patient-centric genomic trials: the new epoch of precision surgical oncology

Despite standardization of multimodal treatment and approval of several targeted drugs for resectable, non-metastatic cancer (MO patients), intrinsic and acquired resistance and relapse rates remain high, even in early-stage aggressive tumors. Genome analysis could overcome these unmet needs. Our comprehensive review underlines the controversy on stable or spatiotemporally evolving clones as well as promising yet inconclusive data on genome-based biomarkers and drug development. We propose clinicogenomic trials in M0 patients for the validation of intratumor heterogeneity (ITH), circulating genomic subclones (cGSs) and intra-patient genomic heterogeneity (IPGH) as biomarkers and simultaneous discovery of novel oncotargets. This evidence-based strategy highlights the coming of precision surgical oncology with a future perspective of understanding and disrupting deregulated transcriptional networks.