Molecular Targeting Agents in Cancer Therapy: Science and Society

Abstract

The inception of targeted agents has revolutionized the cancer therapy paradigm, both for physicians andpatients. A large number of molecular targeted agents for cancer therapy are currently available for clinicaluse today. Many more are in making, but there are issues that remain to be resolved for the scientific as wellas social community before the recommendation of their widespread use in may clinical scenarios can be done,one such issue being cost and cost effectiveness, others being resistance and lack of sustained efficacy. With thecurrent knowledge about available targeted agents, the growing knowledge of intricate molecular pathways andunfolding of wider spectrum of molecular targets that can really matter in the disease control, calls for only thejust use of the agents available now, drug companies need to make a serious attempt to reduce the cost of theagents. Research should focus on agents that show sustained responses in preclinical data. More needs to bedone in laboratories and by the pharmaceutical industries, before we can truly claim to have entered a new eraof targeted therapy in cancer care.