Abstract: Standard anti-cancer therapeutic modalities like chemotherapy and radiotherapy evoke host's reactions that include involvement of the immune system. Elucidation of these mechanisms offers the double advantage of enabling a more rational choice of cytotoxic therapy and exploring the combination with immunotherapy. Radiotherapy, a well established local anti-cancer approach, is a particularly interesting partner for immunotherapy, since it can be harnessed to specifically modify the immunogenicity of the primary tumor and its microenvironment, in the attempt to generate an in situ immunization against a patient's own cancer. ... Read more

Abstract: The new mantra for delivering optimal cancer treatment is "personalized care." This extends beyond the holistic to using germline and somatic tumoral mutations to link a specific therapy to some prognostic or predictive factor which defines a particularly responsive patient subgroup who might benefit most from treatment. Furthermore, inherited polymorphisms have the potential to greatly modulate the side effects of treatment, especially for chemotherapy which has a notoriously narrow therapeutic window (Walther et al., 2009). ... Read more

Abstract: Most drugs don't work optimally in most patients. The same drug can exert a significant overall therapeutic benefit in some patients while post a pronounced overall toxicity risk in others with the same disease. Pharmacogenomics has progressively received attention in the drug development process. But genetics is not the only factor that contributes to the differences that individual patients respond to drugs. Enter global systems biology. ... Read more

Abstract: Comparisons of gene and protein profiling between sickness and health offer tremendous opportunities for finding new drug targets and aiding clinical trial design, in addition to fueling promising expansion of advanced diagnostics. ... Read more

Abstract: Pharmacogenetics, or pharmacogenomics, studies how a person's genetic makeup affects the person's response to drugs, holding out promise for medicine that caters to an individual's genomic makeup. Individualized medicine would be a paradigm shift from the current, centuries-old industry practice. Science, growing awareness of patients' needs, the hesitant but increasingly interested pharmaceutical industry, and government agencies are forging a movement towards personalization of drug treatments. ... Read more

Discovery Medicine is endowed with a passion to facilitate a greater utilization of cutting-edge biomedical research information for the advancement of both continued research and patient care. This includes the cross-referencing of important information such as new ideas, technical breakthroughs, and illuminating conclusions among various medical specialties. Non-research physicians and other professionals can quickly obtain the latest information on the new understanding of diseases, new treatment options, and investigational therapies.

Now we are pleased to add non-medically trained, healthcare-conscious individuals to the journal’s audience. Although some articles may be technical in nature and may inevitably use some scientific terms, readers of ... Read more

In 1997, deCODE Genetics, Inc., a genomics biotechnology company based at Teykjavik, Iceland, proposed to the Icelandic Ministry of Health that a centralized database on health care in Iceland be established for gaining new knowledge and insight about common diseases and for serving as a model system for individualized healthcare practice in a nation. A bill was drafted and debated nationwide, primarily on bioethics and privacy grounds, and passed by the Icelandic Parliament by approximately 75% of the votes in December 1998.

The bill stipulated, among other specific instructions such as community consent, partnership with the community, consent of individuals, and ... Read more

On November 3, 2003, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a document “Draft Guidance for Industry: Pharmacogenomic Data Submissions” that encourages pharmaceutical companies to perform pharmacogenetic tests in all drug development stages and provides clarifications on how the FDA would evaluate these data in the context of drug approval process. The guidelines stated in the draft are not for immediate implementation but rather are intended to “ensure that evolving regulatory policies and study designs are based on the best science; provide public confidence in this new field where scientifically appropriate; facilitate the use of such tests during drug ... Read more

“The concern that advances in biotechnology will come at a terrible price - the loss of authentic happiness, the loss of what makes life meaningful - struggle, suffering frailty, finitude, and death do not seem to square with what we have already experienced in the wake of biomedical progress. Do those who use glasses, insulin injections, wheelchairs, inhalers, oxygen tanks, hearing aids, or prosthetic limbs feel inauthentic or overcome by a loss of meaning in their lives?”

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. In “Is biomedical research too dangerous to pursue?” Science February 20, 2004.

“High-fat, ... Read more

In a major advance in the field of personalized medicine, two clinical research groups illustrated the underlying pharmacogenetic mechanism for why most EGFR-expressing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients do not respond to Iressa and why a small percentage (10%) of these patients responded to it dramatically. The study results indicated that the quantity of the EGFR (overexpression) isn’t important, but it’s the quality (alterations by mutations) that counts with regard to the response behavior of these tumor cells to Iressa, which is a small molecule EGFR inhibitor made by AstraZeneca approved by the U.S. FDA last May.

A team of ... Read more