Pharmacogenomics in Multidrug Resistance

Definition

Multidrug resistance in cancer is the major obstacle to long-term, sustained patient response to chemotherapy. It has been long recognized that the effectiveness of anticancer drugs can vary significantly among individual patients. It is obvious that the susceptibility of cancer cells to particular anticancer drugs cannot be predicted by a single factor but is determined by many factors that influence overall sensitivity. Cancer cells appear to have the capacity to generate variants resistant to anticancer drugs, as part of biological responses to external challenges. Tumors, and even individual cancer cells, can exhibit multiple mechanisms of resistance simultaneously. High-speed genotyping and the acquisition of clinical pharmacogenomic data will be of importance to improve the efficacy and safety of pharmacotherapy of cancer.

Characteristics

Cancer is one of the gene-associated diseases, involving multiple factors in its cause