ATYPICAL RESPONDERS LANDSCAPE REVIEW ∙ OCTOBER, 2017 5 The objective of studying the multifaceted variables relative to all three categories of atypical response is to enable the scientific community to gain a greater understanding of patient outcomes that will be leveraged to enhance personalized medicine to the point where, in the future, terminally ill patients may be transformed into exceptional survivors who can manage their disease as a chronic condition. INTRODUCTION Whereas the National Cancer Institute (NCI) states “Precision medicine uses the genetics of disease to identify effective therapies”[1], we propose that precision medicine should focus on the individual patient using a multifaceted approach. We suggest that as precision medicine becomes more actionable in oncology care, its definition will expand beyond its current focus on treating only the disease (killing cancer cells) to encompass treating the whole patient, considering not only physical health and genetics, but emotional well-being, lifestyle, co-morbidities, and environmental factors during and after treatment. Most clinical studies focus on data derived from patients who fit within a bell curve and often do not examine those who fall significantly outside the average response. Yet these patients, who may be considered “exceptional responders” (i.e., those presenting an unusually favorable treatment response) and “rapid progressors” (i.e., patients demonstrating an unusually poor or no therapeutic response) represent extraordinary potential to increase our understanding of—and improvement upon—human responses to treatment. Although various investigations have been launched in the US and abroad in an effort to understand atypical treatment-related responses in cancer patients, these studies have limitations in that they: We propose that precision medicine should focus on the individual patient using a multi-faceted approach.