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The promise of ESCAT: a new system for evaluating cancer drug–target pairs

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From Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology

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The ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of molecular Targets (ESCAT) will be useful as a common language to harmonize discussions in precision oncology and could also guide policy and reimbursement decisions, but it is far from perfect. Herein, we highlight how ESCAT can be further improved to increase its utility in clinical and policy decisions.

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Acknowledgements

The work of the authors is funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. A.S.K. also receives grant support from the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science and the Engelberg Foundation. The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL), Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Bishal Gyawali & Aaron S. Kesselheim

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  1. Bishal Gyawali
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  2. Aaron S. Kesselheim
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Correspondence to Bishal Gyawali.

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Competing interests

A.S.K. has received unrelated research funding from the FDA Division of Health Communication (2013–2016). B.G. declares no competing interests.

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Gyawali, B., Kesselheim, A.S. The promise of ESCAT: a new system for evaluating cancer drug–target pairs. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 16, 147–148 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-018-0110-3

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