ATYPICAL RESPONDERS LANDSCAPE REVIEW ∙ OCTOBER, 2017 28 CHALLENGES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS A number of discoveries and challenges remain regarding the study and interpretation of atypical responses. Learning from exceptional responders, rapid progressors, and exceptional survivors will require the use of standard terminology, qualitative guidelines, and metrics. It will also necessitate collaboration, funding, and the ability to analyze, annotate, store, and share results in a central data repository [8, 9]. Based on the evidence presented in this paper, a clear paradigm shift is needed within the scientific community to embrace and study not only genetic aberrations within tumors, but other factors including—but not limited to—inherited polymorphisms, the host and tumor environments, lifestyle, use of complementary/integrative/alternative medicine, chemosensitivity and chemoresistance, co-morbidities, and the interplay among them. Financing the above endeavors remains a key consideration, although we anticipate that this investment may be offset by reduced treatment costs as the result of providing seriously ill patients with highly effective, precise, and personalized therapies.