The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7425 p550-552
4 November 2006

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Challenges in tumour targeting

In this article, Max Summerhayes looks at why targeting tumours is difficult and considers whether targeting patients might be easier

Max Summerhayes, PhD, MRPharmS, is scientific adviser at Roche Products Ltd

SUMMARY

It is a prerequisite of effective cancer therapy that treatments do more damage to the cancer than to healthy tissues. A previous article (PJ, 28 October, pp518–25) examined how advances in biological knowledge have allowed scientists to design drugs that do this by exploiting the aberrant biology of malignant cells rather than relying on the mass screening of compounds to identify those with antitumour activity and acceptable toxicity. It also pointed out that few of the molecules and processes selected as targets for therapeutic intervention are completely cancer specific and that many of the drugs in use interact with more than one target. These things can result in the emergence of new and sometimes unexpected toxicities that require novel approaches to management. This is just one of the challenges facing those working in this complex area. Other challenges include:

· Deciding which patients to treat

· Deciding whether to use single target or multi-target therapies

· Deciding whether to use small molecules or antibodies

· Deciding what dose to prescribe

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