Nearly 41% of oncologists say molecular diagnostics and biomarker-driven therapy is the most exciting trend in their field, beating out other emerging trends like AI and immunotherapy, according to the results of a Doximity poll.

An additional 30% say they are most interested in AI-assisted clinical decision support systems, followed by real-world evidence integration and clinical trials (13% of physicians), expanding outpatient and home-based care delivery (12%), and digital therapeutics and remote patient monitoring (4%). The poll, conducted in March 2025, includes the responses of 142 physicians.

The breadth of oncology trends that physicians are currently interested in reflects growing excitement about an area of medicine that has seen significant change in recent years. 

“Oncology is an incredibly exciting field that has evolved a lot over the years,” said Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, chair of the department of investigational cancer therapeutics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

These changes include not just advancements to therapeutic options — such as the 2024 breakthrough finding that adding induction chemotherapy to standard-of-care chemoradiotherapy significantly improves survival for cervical cancer — but also improvements to patient communication and understanding. 

“Over the last several years, we’ve seen outcomes in several diseases change dramatically, and it’s been very gratifying to be in oncology,” Dr. Meric-Bernstam said. “It’s clear the next 10 to 15 years are going to be transformative."

A More Personalized Approach

In a report recently published in “Cancer,” major cancer organizations found that cancer death rates in the U.S., though decreasing overall, fell by only 1.5% per year from 2018 to 2022 — a drop from the previously reported decline of 2.1%. On a global scale, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has projected more than 35 million new cancer cases in 2050, a 77% increase from about 20 million cases in 2022. 

Amid these concerns, advancements in next-generation sequencing, RNA sequencing, methylation profiling, and other molecular diagnostics technologies — along with drug development gains — enable clinicians to more quickly and precisely identify specific genetic alterations as drivers of cancer progression. Many view these advancements as paving the way for a more personalized approach to cancer therapeutics.

Oncologists, for instance, have been using molecular diagnostics to support cancer diagnosis and prognosis, or to determine the most optimal treatment plan for individuals based on their genetics. 

“We’ve accumulated enough data to suggest that genomic testing should be standard of care, and with time, we’ll be able to look at multiple genomic markers together and identify the best individual treatment for each patient,” said Dr. Meric-Bernstam, who last year was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for her contributions to precision oncology, therapeutics development, and biomarker discovery. 

“It has recently become routine practice in the U.S. to do genomic testing in some advanced cancer settings, and now we’re exploring more utility of these targeted therapies in the earlier-line setting,” she said. 

Citing changes to breast cancer management as one example, Dr. Meric-Bernstam noted that while treating hormone-positive patients, physicians now use molecular profiling to assess the patient’s prognosis and to consider other treatments (or combinations of treatments) that would most benefit the patient.

These developments have been particularly compelling for physicians further along in their careers, according to the Doximity poll. Nearly 42% of late-career physicians say molecular diagnostics is the emerging trend in oncology practice that most interests them, compared with 39% for mid-career physicians and 36% for early-career physicians.

Still, these advanced techniques remain limited in many ways. They are not yet fully equipped to interpret levels of cancer-specific genetic heterogeneity, or the variability in the genetic makeup of tumors and thus their response to treatment. In addition, the affordability, scalability, and accessibility of molecular diagnostics continue to be a major hurdle in their clinical application. 

For many oncologists, perhaps the most critical yet least defined step in the molecular diagnostics workflow is the final step of clinical annotation and actionability assessment based on the molecular alterations identified through testing. Dr. Meric-Bernstam came to a similar conclusion in her own work: “We quickly realized that, as panels [for genomic testing] grew, the comfort of physicians and study teams interpreting genomic reports decreased.”

Incredible Opportunities

Beyond molecular diagnostics, physicians seem the most interested in AI-assisted clinical decision support systems. 

"We definitely cannot ignore AI as a huge emerging tool,” Dr. Meric-Bernstam said. AI could have a hand in multiple areas, she continued — from diagnostics and the interpretation of 

immunohistochemistry results to the discovery of novel oncology targets. 

Trisha Taveres, MD, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, agreed, emphasizing AI’s potential to move the field toward “precision medicine tailored to each patient and each individual tumor,” where “AI will help [physicians] identify the best tailored regimen.”

However, as with molecular diagnostics, there remain barriers to using AI in clinical practice. Applying AI to clinical decision-making, for example, “is not as easy as asking Siri what to do,” Dr. Meric-Bernstam said. “Though AI tools may be much more likely to know everything, as oncologists, we have to make sure we know the source; we cannot make decisions based on a black box.” 

Physicians’ interest in other oncology trends — such as outpatient and home-based care delivery, immune checkpoint inhibitors, digital therapeutics, and remote patient monitoring — further highlights the many ways the community is working to improve cancer treatment. 

As work in these areas continues to advance, Dr. Meric-Bernstam encouraged physicians, physician-scientists, and investigators to build partnerships with people who are innovating new technology, like AI, in oncology and pathology. Especially in the area of diagnostics, she said, through collaboration, “there’s an opportunity to think about what the real clinical needs are and how we can do what we do better.”

What emerging trends from this list, or outside of this list, are most exciting to you? Share below!

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