Pharmacogenomics in the Treatment of Lung Cancer: an Update

Abstract

Significant advances have been made in the analysis of the human genome in the first decades of the 21st century and understanding of tumor biology has matured greatly. The identification of tumor-associated mutations and the pathways involved has led to the development of targeted anticancer therapies. However, the challenge now in using chemotherapy to treat nonsmall-cell lung cancer is to identify more molecular markers predictive of drug sensitivity and determine the optimal drug sequences in order to tailor treatment to each patient. This approach could permit selection of patients who could benefit most from a specific type of chemotherapy by matching their tumor and individual genetic profile. Nevertheless, this potential has been limited so far by reliance on the single biomarker approach, though this is now on the way to being overcome through whole genome studies.

Keywords::

• DNA repair
• drug metabolism
• lung cancer
• personalized medicine
• pharmacogenomics
• tailored therapy
• targeted therapy

Financial & competing interests disclosure

D Morales-Espinosa’s work is supported with grants from IASLC’s Lung Cancer Research Fellowship Award and ESMO’s Translational Research Fellowship Award. Work in R Rosell’s Laboratory is partially supported by a grant from Fundació La Caixa. 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.

Additional information

Funding

D Morales-Espinosa’s work is supported with grants from IASLC’s Lung Cancer Research Fellowship Award and ESMO’s Translational Research Fellowship Award. Work in R Rosell’s Laboratory is partially supported by a grant from Fundació La Caixa. 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.