Description
This asynchronous course introduces the basic molecular concepts of cancer and pharmacogenomics in the context of cancer treatment. It presents the current methodologies used in cutting-edge oncology for the treatment of two of the most common types of cancer: breast and colon. The standard-of-care combinatorial regimens will be presented, as well as the treatment scenarios that are applied to advanced stage and recurrent disease. Drugs that have increased patient tolerance to these genotoxic regimens will also be discussed. Finally, the application of next-generation sequencing of tumor DNA or RNA to determine which of the over 300 druggable mutations exist in these tumors will be discussed, primarily inthe cancer-recurrence setting. Prognostic tests based on RNA expression from tumors will be covered. Discussion of the rationale for insurance coverage of pharmacogenomics will be covered. The impact of oncologic pharmacogenomics on future clinical trials will be examined.