Personalized Cancer Medicines

1. Personalized Cancer Medicines What is Personalized Cancer Medicine? Personalized cancer medicine is a treatment based on the individual’s genes and the disease. As every other “personalized” entity, personalized medicine is prescribed as per the specific effect of the condition. Such cancer therapy addresses the severity of the disease and involves the use of the right compositions together. Such treatment depends majorly upon:  The severity of the disease  The stage of the disease  The type of disease (cancer) Personalized treatment is basically the later-stage cancer treatment when most available therapies have been tried and tested upon the patients. How is Personalized Treatment Different? In an early stage, a common type of treatment is given to patients. However, the doctors notice further which treatment suits the patient best. As per the condition and response of the patient, the medical team looks out for the most suitable treatment option (that can be used till the symptoms disappear). In other words, personalized treatment is the optimum therapy given to the patients with respect to their individual circumstances including molecular characteristics of tumors, genetic mutations, medical history, physiological status, and the presence of cancer cells.

2. What is an Example of Personalized Medicine? A very known example of personalized medicine is Targeted therapy. Medicines for blood cancer like Daratumumab among others belong to the category of targeted therapy drugs. In simple words, targeted therapy is a form of cancer treatment that makes use of drugs to attack specific types of cancer cells or proteins in the body. Like, targeted therapy medicines for lung cancer are:  Bevacizumab  Ceritinib  Erlotinib  Gefitinib Based on the molecular or biological tests of the tumor, personalized medicine or a combination of personalized medicines is recommended to the cancer patient. However, it is true that such a treatment option is not available for all types of cancers. Research studies are being conducted for the same to improve the quality of cancer treatment globally.