Pharmacogenetic Testing-Guided Treatment for Oncology: An Overview of Reviews

Abstract

Pharmacogenetics is the relationship between an individual’s genetic variations and their response to pharmacological treatment. We conducted an overview of reviews on the use of post-treatment pharmacogenetic testing for oncology, based on clinically relevant gene–drug pairs. We conducted a search on Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library, from their inception to 18 June 2020. We selected six eligible systematic reviews. The most studied drug categories were estrogen agonists/antagonists and fluoropyrimidines associated with cytochrome P450 and dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase genes (CYP2D6 and DPYD), but many studies were classified as being of critically low or low quality. There is a need for more high-quality primary studies and systematic reviews that assess the risk of bias, with consistent definitions of clinical outcomes to consider the benefits of pharmacogenetic testing for oncology.

Keywords::

• evidence-based medicine
• oncology
• pharmacogenetics
• polymorphism
• systematic review

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/pgs-2022-0064

Author contributions

D de Lara wrote the manuscript. D de Lara, D de Melo and P Santos designed the research. D de Melo designed and executed the search strategy. D de Lara, D de Melo, D Kawakami, T Gonçalves and P Santos analyzed the data and reviewed the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank D Toita from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences for her assistance in the selection of the studies.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

141302/2020-8 – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ); 001 – Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES); 2019/08338-7 – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher.

Additional information

Funding

141302/2020-8 – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ); 001 – Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES); 2019/08338-7 – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.