Despite an isolated clinical success of trastuzumab and lapatinib in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive disease, most other targeted agents have been proved of modest or no clinical efficacy in various solid cancers [1, 2]. Continuing the research, clinical, and public health strategy on “one agent for all patients” harms
|
 |
public health and costs, public and private insurances, and community. Only pharmaceutical industry has major financial gains from the clinical routine use of highly expensive targeted “therapy”. Perhaps a few patients may benefit. Nevertheless, the vast majority of patients experience an unnecessary overtreatment with potential adverse effects [1, 2].
Why is it illusion to expect any benefit from generalization, unselected treatment strategy using the currently available targeted drugs? What are the genetic variation-based convincing data that accumulating proves now the need for a revolution in discovery drugs research arena and randomized trials design? Why and how quantitative genetics, personal genomics and systems biology [3- 6] represent the most rational scientific approaches to achieve the major goal of a patient-tailored management of solid cancers? |
