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Personalized medicine in oncology: the future is now

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 9, pages 363–366 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cancer chemotherapy is in evolution from non-specific cytotoxic drugs that damage both tumour and normal cells to more specific agents and immunotherapy approaches. Targeted agents are directed at unique molecular features of cancer cells, and immunotherapeutics modulate the tumour immune response; both approaches aim to produce greater effectiveness with less toxicity. The development and use of such agents in biomarker-defined populations enables a more personalized approach to cancer treatment than previously possible and has the potential to reduce the cost of cancer care.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard L. Schilsky is at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Avenue, MC 2115, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. rschilsk@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu,

    Richard L. Schilsky

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  1. Richard L. Schilsky
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The author declares no competing financial interests.

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DATABASES

OMIM

Breast cancer

chronic myeloid leukaemia

colorectal cancer

gastointestinal stromal tumours

non-small cell lung cancer

FURTHER INFORMATION

Accelerating Development and Approval of Targeted Cancer Therapies

The Brookings Institute

The Cancer Genome Atlas

The Cancer Genome Project

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Schilsky, R. Personalized medicine in oncology: the future is now. Nat Rev Drug Discov 9, 363–366 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3181

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