New Drug Targets for Genomic Cancer Therapy Successes, Limitations, Opportunities and Future Challenges

Author: Workman P.

Source: Current Cancer Drug Targets, Volume 1, Number 1, May 2001 , pp. 33-47(15)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

Cancer drug therapy is undergoing a major transition from the previous pregenomic cytotoxic era to the new postgenomic era. Future mechanism-based therapeutic agents will increasingly be designed to act on molecular targets that are causally involved in the malignant progression of human cancers. Such agents are predicted to show greater therapeutic selectivity for cancer versus normal cells. New cancer drug targets are identified and validated in various ways. The determination of the normal human genome sequence, followed by that of multiple cancer genomes, is accelerating target discovery. Other new technologies, particularly high throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry and gene expression microarrays, are increasing the speed and efficiency of drug development. Examples of new molecular therapeutics showing promising activity in the clinic include Herceptin, Glivec and Iressa. However, many challenges remain as we test the vision of individualised combinatorial genome-based therapy, using drugs targeted to every significant molecular abnormality in cancer.

Keywords: Genomic Cancer Therapy; pregenomic cytotoxic era; radiation therapy; Herceptin; postgenomic drug; level of prioritisation; pharmacodynamic relationships; Pipelines Face

Language: English

Document Type: Review article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568009013334269

Publication date: 2001-05-01

• Current Cancer Drug Targets aims to cover all the latest and outstanding developments on the medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, genomics and biochemistry of contemporary molecular drug targets involved in cancer, e.g. disease specific proteins, receptors, enzymes, genes.
  Each issue of the journal contains a series of timely in-depth reviews written by leaders in the field covering a range of current topics on drug targets involved in cancer.
  As the discovery, identification, characterization and validation of novel human drug targets for anti-cancer drug discovery continues to grow; this journal has become essential reading for all pharmaceutical scientists involved in drug discovery and development.

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• In this Subject: Oncology ,  Pharmacology
• By this author: Workman P.

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