Opportunities and challenges of implementing Pharmacogenomics in cancer drug development

Paolo Tarantino; Dario Trapani; Stefania Morganti; Emanuela Ferraro; Giulia Viale; Paolo D'Amico; Bruno Achutti Duso; Giuseppe Curigliano

doi:10.20517/cdr.2018.22

Opportunities and challenges of implementing Pharmacogenomics in cancer drug development

Cancer Drug Resist. 2019 Mar 19;2(1):43-52. doi: 10.20517/cdr.2018.22. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Paolo Tarantino^{1

2}, Dario Trapani^{1

2}, Stefania Morganti^{1

2}, Emanuela Ferraro^{1

2}, Giulia Viale^{1

2}, Paolo D'Amico^{1

2}, Bruno Achutti Duso^{1

2}, Giuseppe Curigliano^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Early Drug Development for Innovative Therapies, IEO, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan 20141, Italy.
² Department of Oncology and Haematology (DIPO), University of Milan, Milan 20122, Italy.

Abstract

Cancer drug development is a time and resources consuming process. Around 90% of drugs entering clinical trials fail due to lack of efficacy and/or safety issues, more often after conspicuous research and economic efforts. Part of the discarded drugs might be beneficial only in a subgroup of the study patients, and some adverse events might be prevented by identifying those patients more vulnerable to toxicities. The implementation of pharmacogenomic biomarkers allows the categorization of patients, to predict efficacy and toxicity and to optimize the drug development process. Around seventy FDA approved drugs currently present one or more genetic biomarker to keep in consideration, and with the progress of Precision Medicine tailoring therapies on individuals' genomic landscape promises to become a new standard of cancer care. In the current article we review the role of pharmacogenomics in cancer drug development, underlying the advantages and challenges of their implementation.

Keywords: Pharmacogenomics; cancer drug development; clinical trials; precision medicine.

Publication types

Review