In Vitro Assessment and Non-Invasive Imaging of Patient and Tumor Status to Determine Clinical Effectiveness

Drug development in oncology is at the verge of a new era that may ultimately realize the potential of cancer becoming a chronic disease. It is becoming apparent that in order to effectively treat patients with cancer it is necessary to accurately profile their disease and closely and continuously monitor its development. Combining the use of targeted anticancer agents with patient selection and monitoring using highly specific in-vitro tests and/or noninvasive imaging approaches is creating a unique and powerful method for the effective treatment of cancer.

New Medicine's (Laguna Niguel, CA, USA) Oncology KnowledgeBASE (nm/OK), which has anticipated this trend, is a novel resource of every aspect of patient assessment to customize cancer treatment. A unique functionality of nm/OK allows users to specifically retrieve information regarding diagnostic/prognostic approaches by developer and cancer indication; target assessment (overexpression, amplification, mutation, methylation status) by drug, marker, and clinical trial protocol; and biomarkers for clinical trial surrogate endpoints, among others.

There are over 1,000 molecular targets linked to some aspect of neoplasia currently in preclinical or clinical development or on the market. Among the approximately 500 novel molecularly targeted agents that have been evaluated in clinical trials (multitargeted agents may appear in several groups) are: 41 agents targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway; 18 agents targeting the ErBb family (EGFr, HEr2); 13 agents targeting the Aurora kinase family; 11 histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC); three agents targeting PDGF/PDGFr; 11 agents targeting various heat shock proteins (Hsp); 10 drugs targeting various cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk); 10 agents targeting c-Met; 10 agents targeting IGF/IGFr; 10 agents targeting FLT-3; and nine agents targeting c-Kit.


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