Impact of genomics on personalized cancer medicine

Abstract

Recent advances in tumor genetics and drug development have led to the generation of a wealth of anticancer targeted therapies. A few recent examples indicate that these drugs are mainly, if not exclusively, active against tumors of a particular genotype that can be identified by a diagnostic test, usually by detecting a somatic alteration in the tumor DNA. However, for the majority of targeted therapies in development, there are still no clinical tools to determine which patients are most likely to benefit or, alternatively, be resistant de novo to these novel agents or drug combinations.