Current and future issue of molecular target therapy in hematological malignancy

Abstract

Molecular biology and genetic engineering have succeeded in leading the development of molecular target agents, which specifically target to the genes inducing carcinogenesis and the proteins relating to tumor growth. Conventional anti-tumor agents inhibit not only cancer but also normal cells, while molecular target agents inhibit basically only cancer cells. Thus, molecular target agents are very promising in cancer treatment. Actually, ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, imatinib mesylate has dramatically improved the prognosis of chronic myeloid leukemia patients and become a first choice within a few years after the initiation of clinical use. In addition to imatinib mesylate, a lot of molecular target agents for hematological malignancies have been developed. Although molecular target agents are hopeful, there still remain a lot of problems such as resistance to the agents, drug lag and expensive prices that reflect increasing developmental costs, etc.