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Nursing Pharmacology Chapter 33-34: Anticancer Drugs
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Targeted Anticancer Drugs
Targeted chemotherapy or "precision oncology" depends on use of:3
Prodrugs, meaning gene-directed or antibody-directed therapies.
Kinase inhibitors therapies which target selectively specific molecular determinants based on genetic screening analysis and
Monoclonal antibodies (MAb)-based therapeutics.
Targeted chemotherapy is intended to obviate the nonspecific and often debilitating toxicities associated with many traditional chemotherapeutic agents by directing drugs to cancer cells more specifically.3
Targeted
treatments, however, are associated with their own adverse effects and
specific toxicities.
However, most
(about 80%) of the new cancer agents approved by the FDA (2000-2014) fall
into the category of targeted therapeutic drugs.3
Targeted treatment may also be combined with traditional, cytotoxic drugs with the combination improving efficacy.1
Targets in cancer drug discovery programs include:
Growth factor receptors
Downstream signaling molecules.1
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