PHARMACOGENETICS APPLIED TO CANCER. INDIVIDUALIZED CHEMOTHERAPY AND MOLECULAR SPECIFICITY

Abstract

Pharmacogenetics studies the correlation between genetic variations and drug response. This approach has a special appeal to oncology since cancer chemotherapy is certainly the therapeutic modality that has frequently to deal with high incidence of toxicity, which very frequently leads to severe morbidity or even death. Several examples show how pharmacogenetics can significantly contribute for the improvement of cancer therapy. In this review, some of those examples are shown to provide a clear comprehension of the concepts of this discipline which conjugates pharmacology and genetics in order to optimize the cancer therapy taking into account specific conditions that might be present both in the patient and the tumor.