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Clinical Pharmacology and Anticancer Drugs

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Pharmacogenetics: Making cancer treatment safer and more effective

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Abstract

Anticancer drugs are usually aggressive and during treatment result in toxicity, not only in the tumoral cells, but also in normal tissues. There exists a large inter-patient variability in human response to chemotherapy, leading to toxicity for some patients, lack of efficacy for others, and a satisfactory response in only a fraction of patients. One of the major objectives of clinical pharmacology is to precisely define the processes responsible for this variability, which could provide a more rational clinical use of drugs. This variability in drug response can be caused by inter-individual variability in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (pharmacokinetics) by altering systemic drug exposure and delivery to its site of action. In addition, differences in the target and effector molecules (pharmacodynamics) can also alter drug effects. Both the genetic profile of the tumour and the genetic background of the patient may affect these processes. Additionally, co-medication, disease, environmental and demographic factors can contribute to the differences between patients. In this chapter, we will focus on the most clinically relevant aspects of drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and discuss the most relevant proteins mediating these processes, placing special emphasis on anticancer drugs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hereditary Endocrine Cancer Group, Human Cancer Genetics Programme, Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO), Melchor Fernández Almagro 3, Madrid, 28029, Spain

    Cristina Rodríguez-Antona

  2. Institute of Pharmacology of Natural Products and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Ulm, Helmholtzstr. 20, 89081, Ulm, Germany

    Julia Kirchheiner

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  1. Cristina Rodríguez-Antona
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  2. Julia Kirchheiner
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Correspondence to Cristina Rodríguez-Antona .

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  1. Science Centre (MAHSC), University of Manchester, St. Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom

    William G. Newman

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Rodríguez-Antona, C., Kirchheiner, J. (2010). Clinical Pharmacology and Anticancer Drugs. In: Newman, W. (eds) Pharmacogenetics: Making cancer treatment safer and more effective. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8618-1_2

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