ABSTRACT
Every living cell is designed to assure survival and reproductive capability despite the many environmental toxins it may be exposed to. This is particularly true for cancer cells. The preceding discussion demonstrates the multiple interrelated, complex, and adaptive cellular mechanisms assuring cell survival and procreation. These multifaceted escape mechanisms are also the basis for tumor drug resistance. Because of the multitude of escape mechanisms, it is unlikely that any one molecular substance or gene will be able to serve as a drug-resistance marker. While genomics and proteinomics in combination with microarray technologies have the promise to identify markers of drug resistance, only direct drug testing on fresh tumor tissue makes it possible at this time to provide information regarding chemotherapy response of individual tumors (1).
