The Role of Genetic Data Analysis for Precision Therapy in Cancer: Personalized Medicine Concept in Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Cancer has been known as a devastating disease that takes thousands of lives every year. And since this is a heterogenous disease, standard treatments, like chemotherapy, radiation, and chemo-radio therapy, are effective in specific patient population subset only. Genetic differences play a very crucial role in defining cancer susceptibility and also in determining the drug's efficacy by affecting regulation, expression, and activity of drug metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters, and drug receptors. This genetic variability of the disease lends itself to the emerging field of precision or personalized medicine. There are some specific ways of acquiring data for precision or personalized medicine approach like genome wide association scan (GWAS). This is basically identification and scanning of biomarkers throughout the complete DNA/genome of several individuals to study any type of genetic variations which are linked with any form of cancer.