Individualized cancer chemotherapy integrating drug sensitivity tests, pathological profile analysis and computational coordination - An effective strategy to improve clinical treatment

Background: Most current cancer chemotherapy is unsatisfactory. There is a trend towards changing the norm for drug selection; one approach is to seek individualized cancer chemotherapy (ICC). Methods and results: ICC is an approach to maximizing the efficacy of chemotherapy and reducing its adverse effects to a minimum. It involves choosing anticancer drugs through the following critical steps: (i) performing drug sensitivity tests in vivo and/or in vitro; (ii) analyzing pathogenic information from morphology, histology and bioinformatics, so that targeted therapy can be offered to disrupt the escalating tumorigenic molecules and pathways; (iii) introducing mathematical and computational systems to assist in improving the quality of decision-making. Conclusion: Increasing clinical evidence indicates that drug sensitivity tests, pathological profile analyses and computational coordination are ways to improve therapeutic quality. In future, each patient should have his own unique chemotherapy protocol. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.