Design and implementing pharmacogenomics study in cancer

Abstract

The advances in technology has shifted healthcare from a “one size fits all” model to focus on personalized therapy. Understanding the relationship of genome variations and its effect on drug response has led to individualized drug selection, maximizing drug efficacy and improving toxicity profile. The developments in pharmacogenomics has led to the discovery of predictive and prognostic biomarkers, and has transformed cancer research leading to the creation of pharmacogenomics databases. While challenges associated with the implementation of pharmacogenomics based medicine exist, integrating data amongst collaborative networks will be crucial for researchers to identify all the functional elements of the human genome sequence. Future advances in the area of pharmacogenomics research will eventually lead to the identification of the right therapeutic drug for the right patient.