Aug 28 2024 10 mins 1
In this JCO Precision Oncology Article Insights episode, Miki Horiguchi summarizes an editorial: “Expanding the Reach of Personalized Medicine in Cancer Care: Current Progress and Future Directions of JCO Precision Oncology” by Dr. Yushu Shi et al. published on May 30, 2024.
TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to JCO Precision Oncology Article Insights. I’m your host Miki Horiguchi, an ASCO Journals Editorial Fellow. Today, I will be providing a summary of the article titled “Expanding the Reach of Personalized Medicine in Cancer Care: Current Progress and Future Directions of JCO Precision Oncology”. This is an editorial by Dr. Yushu Shi and colleagues that investigated trends in publication, peer review, and global influence of JCO precision oncology.
Before getting into the editorial, I would like to briefly introduce to precision oncology and the JCO Precision Oncology journal as a leading platform for research in this field.
Precision oncology is a personalized medicine approach that leverages advances in genomics and molecular profiling of tumors, biomarker-driven decisions, and targeted therapies to enhance clinical care for patients with various cancer types. Since there are many aspects to consider, such as biologic, clinical, and statistical aspects, advances in precision oncology also come with numerous challenges. These include identifying targetable mutations and addressing tumor heterogeneity and drug resistance. Other challenges are developing new study designs and statistical analysis methods to evaluate new approaches, as well as developing methods to manage large and complex datasets.
Since the American Society of Clinical Oncology introduced the journal JCO Precision Oncology (or JCO PO) in 2016, it has played an important role as a dedicated platform for publishing high-quality research and promoting discussions on those challenges.
JCO PO is a peer-reviewed, online-only, article-based journal publishing articles across multiple categories. These include original reports, case reports, review articles, commentaries, correspondence, editorials, special articles, and molecular tumor board case discussions.
The journal’s contribution to the advancement of the field is reflected in the journals’ impact factor, which was 4.6 in 2022 and 5.3 in 2023.
In the editorial, Dr. Shi and colleagues first investigated the publication trends from 2017 to 2022, highlighting cancer types, article types, the number of citations, and topics of papers published in JCO PO that have had broad impact. The papers accepted at JCO PO covered a broad range of research topics, including genomics-driven tumor treatments, molecularly selected targeted therapy, translational oncology, cancer biomarkers, gene expression and profiling, biostatistics and clinical trial methodology, epidemiology, and cancer prevention and control. The most common cancer types are thoracic, GI, and breast cancers. Original reports were more likely to be cited than case reports. The average number of annual citations for original reports was 4.33, while it was 1.39 for case reports. The authors listed the 10 most cited papers published in JCO PO in a table. The most cited paper was an original report titled “Landscape of Microsatellite Instability Across 39 Cancer Types” by Bonneville and colleagues. The paper has been cited more than 600 times since it was published in 2017.
Next, the authors conducted an analysis to see trends in peer-review. When manuscripts are submitted to JCO PO, they go through a rigorous peer-review process. Reviewers evaluate them based on five key metrics: importance of the study, originality, quality of writing, relevance to clinical practice, and scientific strength. Each metric is rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating better performance. Dr. Shi and colleagues compared the rating scores between accepted and rejected manuscripts of original reports and case reports. They found that the median score of accepted manuscripts was above 3.5 for all metrics. The findings highlight that no single metric determines acceptance, underscoring the importance of excelling in all five areas when developing manuscripts.
Finally, the authors looked at trends in global influence in JCO PO. Counting the country where the corresponding author’s institution is located, Dr. Shi and colleagues found that JCO PO has accepted manuscripts from 36 countries, indicating a steady increase in its global reach. The United States accounts for about 71% of the total contributors. The other top contributors include France, Canada, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and China. Notably, global collaborations among authors have significantly increased, with the proportion of papers from multiple countries more than doubling from 12.5% in 2016 to 26.5% in 2022. These facts reflect JCO PO’s ongoing commitment to engaging with the international precision oncology community and encouraging global research submissions.
At the end of the editorial, the authors provided some guidance for future authors. Across original reports and case reports, successful submissions to JCO PO typically have a translational focus. They provided a mechanistic understanding of tumor biology and utilized cancer genomics to inform clinical decision making. The authors also highlighted several underrepresented but growing areas of interest at JCO PO. These include pediatric oncology, sarcomas, ethics, trial methodology, informatics, computational approaches, and statistical methods related to precision oncology. Furthermore, the increasing significance of germline genetics, pharmacogenetics, molecular diagnostics, and molecular epidemiology in precision oncology has been recognized and valued by JCO PO.
JCO PO also has special series issues. The special series feature timely research topics, such as Equity in Precision Medicine, Statistical Methods for Precision Oncology, and Next Generation Sequencing. Through these special series, JCO PO continues to lead the advancement of the application of precision oncology across a diverse patient population.
The authors also provided points to consider when submitting case reports. For successful case report submissions, especially n-of-1 reports that showcase novel findings with potential clinical impact, it is crucial to include robust data to support the clinical observations, investigate underlying mechanisms, and ensure proper protection of patients’ identity and autonomy. An n-of-1 report alone is often insufficient for publication. Successful case reports typically extend beyond a single patient, examining the phenomenon in multiple patients and providing mechanistic validation, either in vitro or through preclinical models.
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