Personalized Medicine in Oncology

This book covers the field of precision oncology and is aligned with the targeted therapy drug development paradigm. Chapters present the relevance of immunotherapies as important and pivotal treatment strategies for cancer. The book outlines how Immune checkpoint inhibitors, CAR T cell therapies, antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies evolved through the conduct of clinical trials and the resulting data to become critical components of the oncologist’s armamentarium. The mechanism of each class is described in detail and how each has advantages and limitations concerning existing standards of care, demonstrating that they complement and contrast with each other; resistance mechanisms are also discussed. Targeted therapies for solid tumors and hematologic malignancies are explained in-depth. The roles of cancer genomics and liquid biopsy for precision oncology are also explored. This book sufficiently fills a gap by coalescing these studies into a thorough, yet clear compendium of these therapies. It describes the prognostic and predictive significance of each drug, biomarkers for determining their therapeutic potential, along with the assays (e.g., IHC) that evaluate them. Personalized Medicine in Oncology is a valuable resource for oncologists and clinicians as well as graduate medical students, cancer nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and clinicians in other related therapeutic areas of interest.