Mayo Clinic’s annual Drive to Cure Cancer helps fund important research projects, clinical trials and innovative care strategies to diagnose and prevent cancer. As a result, we’ve made many important breakthroughs recently in both research and patient care. Here are just a few highlights:

• Mayo Clinic researchers created a patient-specific gene “road map” by incorporating a statistical technique known as probabilistic modeling, while exploring data from 90 breast cancer patients. This patient-specific information will allow clinicians to more effectively recommend individualized cancer treatments. The tool being used in this effort will operate as the groundwork for a potential artificial intelligence (AI) platform that could also be used to address a wider array of diseases.
• While immunotherapy has proven to be effective in some patients with mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer most commonly associated with inhaling asbestos fibers, the therapy doesn’t always have the desired outcome, with many patients experiencing significant side effects. Mayo Clinic researchers are leading the discovery of a genomic signature to predict which people with mesothelioma could benefit from immunotherapy. 
• A tiny microbe thriving in the uterine microbiome could be a driver of endometrial cancer, the most common cancer in women. “Our discovery moves us closer to identifying new therapeutic targets,” says Marina Walther-Antonio, Ph.D., a researcher within the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine who focuses on the human microbiome’s role in women’s health. “This is a significant leap toward understanding the role of the microbe in the disease,” which could allow us to explore new venues in prevention and treatment.