Wang Zhijun, Liu Xuefeng, Ho Rebecca Lucinda Ka Yan, Lam Christopher Wai Kei, Chow Moses Sing Sum
Center for Advancement of Drug Research and Evaluation, College of Pharmacy, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA 91766, USA.
Department of Pathology and Center for Cell Reprogramming, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
Molecules. 2016 Jul 7;21(7):889. doi: 10.3390/molecules21070889.
Although over 100 chemotherapeutic agents are currently available for the treatment of cancer patients, the overall long term clinical benefit is disappointing due to the lack of effectiveness or severe side effects from these agents. In order to improve the therapeutic outcome, a new approach called precision medicine or personalized medicine has been proposed and initiated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. However, the limited availability of effective medications and the high cost are still the major barriers for many cancer patients. Thus alternative approaches such as herbal medicines could be a feasible and less costly option. Unfortunately, scientific evidence for the efficacy of a majority of herbal medicines is still lacking and their development to meet FDA approval or other regulatory agencies is a big challenge. However, herbal medicines may be able to play an important role in precision medicine or personalized medicine. This review will focus on the existing and future technologies that could speed the development of herbal products for treatment of resistant cancer in individual patients. Specifically, it will concentrate on reviewing the phenotypic (activity based) rather than genotypic (mechanism based) approach to develop herbal medicine useful for personalized cancer chemotherapy.
尽管目前有100多种化疗药物可用于治疗癌症患者，但由于这些药物缺乏有效性或存在严重副作用，总体长期临床获益令人失望。为了改善治疗效果，美国国立卫生研究院提出并启动了一种名为精准医学或个性化医学的新方法。然而，有效药物的可及性有限以及成本高昂仍是许多癌症患者面临的主要障碍。因此，诸如草药等替代方法可能是一种可行且成本较低的选择。不幸的是，大多数草药疗效的科学证据仍然缺乏，并且要使其发展到获得美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）或其他监管机构的批准是一项巨大挑战。然而，草药可能能够在精准医学或个性化医学中发挥重要作用。本综述将聚焦于现有及未来技术，这些技术可加速用于治疗个体患者耐药性癌症的草药产品的开发。具体而言，它将专注于回顾基于表型（基于活性）而非基因型（基于机制）的方法来开发对个性化癌症化疗有用的草药。
