Kewal K Jain
Jain Pharma Biotech, Switzerland
Title: Principles of Personalized Medicine are Applied to cancer
Biography
Biography: Kewal K Jain
Abstract
Cancer is the most important area for application of personalized medicine, also called precision medicine. This workshop will deal basic principles of personalized oncology. Cancer is a multifactorial complex disease. Variations in behavior of cancer of the same histological type from one patient to another is taken into consideration in addition to variations among patients. Cancer varies both genetically and phenotypically between patients who may have the identical type and stage of cancer. Epigenetic factors also play a role. Each person's cancer is as unique as his or her fingerprint. Personalization of cancer therapies is based on a better understanding of the disease at the molecular level. Molecular diagnostics, molecular imaging, sequencing and monitoring of gene expression by microarrays are important technologies for this purpose. Integration of information gained from various ‘omic’ technologies such as genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, is important in developing personalized approaches. Identification of cancer biomarkers that can enable presymptomatic diagnosis, stratification of cancer, assessment of its progression, evaluation of patient response to therapy, and the identification of recurrences. Study of cancer pathways is providing new targets for anticancer drugs. Among the available therapeutics, matching of the right drug to the right type of cancer and appropriate combination of various options required for a complex disease is important. Improvement of drug formulation and delivery is facilitated by nanobiotechnology. Anticancer medicines can be targeted to the tumor and spare the normal tissues to reduce systemic toxicity.