Kalyn Rhonda
Pharmacy Communities Oncology Network Educator, BC Cancer Agency - Centre for the Southern Interior, 399 Royal Ave, Kelowna, BC, Canada V1Y 5L3.
J Oncol Pharm Pract. 2007 Dec;13(4):199-205. doi: 10.1177/1078155207080804.
Recent scientific advances have provided a map of the human genome along with a better understanding of the processes that transform healthy cells into diseased cells. This has led to the emergence of a new class of drugs called targeted therapies.
To describe the classifications and basic pharmacology of targeted therapies.
A literature search was performed for peer reviewed journal articles using Medline (1996-2007), Embase (1996-2007) and Google. The search was performed using keywords such as angiogenesis inhibitors, cancer vaccines, gene therapy, monoclonal antibodies, small molecules, proteasome inhibitors, targeted therapy and tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
A review of the basic pharmacology is described in this article, including the following major categories of targeted therapies: * Small molecule drugs * Monoclonal antibodies * Apoptosis-inducing drugs * Angiogenesis Inhibitors * Cancer vaccines * Gene therapy.
