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Newton Upper Falls, MA/Oncology is an increasingly popular area for drug discovery and development, largely because genomics has added greatly to understanding about this disease and provided new ways to address it. Now a new report, Cancer Genomics: Revolutionizing Treatment and Reshaping Markets through Targeted Therapies, published by Cambridge Healthtech Institute, provides a realistic assessment of what genomics technology will bring to the cancer treatment field within the next decade.
According to the report, the most important new development in oncology research is the ability to study and identify key pathways related to tumorigenesis and progression. Researchers have already achieved some success in translating newly gained information into drugs directed at novel and well-defined molecular pathways, most notably Novartis’ Gleevec and Genentech/Roche’s Herceptin. Furthermore, genomics has not only helped to better describe many already known pathways, but is revealing, in unprecedented numbers, new targets and their roles in cell differentiation and function, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. Knowledge of the processes involved in tumorigenesis is also beginning to provide answers to the urgent question of why some tumors are chemo-sensitive and others are chemo-resistant.
“Although in many cases it is still not possible to predict with precision the role that an over-expressed or mutant gene will play in tumorigenesis, technology is now evolving to help judge whether an oncogene has a major or minor role to play,” states Marcia S. Brose of the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, one of 15 experts interviewed for the report. “Expression patterns of genes and their effect on signal pathways directly or indirectly related to them can be analyzed by using computational programs. The design of programs predicting the effect of blocking signal pathways at specific points and the effect on cellular function is becoming an important part of target evaluation. When more sophisticated programs become available, they will enable the most influential targets to be chosen with confidence for drug development.”
For more information about Cancer Genomics: Revolutionizing Treatment and Reshaping Markets through Targeted Therapies, please visit http://www.chadvisors.com, or contact Cindy Ohlman at 617-630-1334 or at cohlman@healthtech.com.
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