Precision cancer medicine (PCM) is a concept in which oncologists increasingly strive to tailor the use of targeted therapies in order to match the complexity of the cancer genome. This approach contradicts the historical framework used to support oncology practice that requires evidence from randomized controlled trials in order to change standards of care. This contrast demonstrates the irony of PCM: the therapies themselves are more precise than standard cytotoxic agents, although the clinical evidence supporting the benefits of these therapies is often considerably less precise. Nevertheless, the implementation of PCM should still be based on a framework of evidence-based development that supports clinical decision-making; this approach should not be simple off-label prescription of drugs following sequencing of a tumour biopsy sample. The clinical validation of increasingly complex diagnostic tests, the development of novel methods of evaluating efficacy, and the re-assessment of the standards of evidence sufficient to demonstrate the benefit of precision cancer therapies are all needed before PCM becomes the standard of care for patients with tumours harbouring genomic abnormalities of uncertain clinical significance.

精确癌症医学（PCM）是一个概念，在这种概念中，肿瘤学家越来越努力地调整目标疗法的使用，以匹配癌症基因组的复杂性。这种方法与支持肿瘤学实践的历史框架相矛盾，后者需要来自随机对照试验的证据才能改变治疗标准。这种对比表明了PCM的讽刺意味：尽管支持这些疗法的临床证据常常较不准确，但疗法本身比标准的细胞毒剂更为精确。尽管如此，PCM的实施仍应基于支持临床决策的循证开发框架。在对肿瘤活检样品进行测序后，这种方法不应是简单的非处方药处方。