ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that no two patients’ cancers are exactly the same, and they therefore may have variable responses to treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation (Burney and Lakhtakia, 2017). The concept of “one size fits all” is undergoing a significant change with a more individualistic approach of treatment based on the study of key patient genetic and omic data (transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics). For example, a mutation in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is the causal factor behind the incidence of about 5% of non-small-cell lung cancers (Williams, 2015). These patients are treated with medicines such as crizotinib and ceritinib, which are ALK blockers. Similarly, the use of the poly ADP ribose polymerase inhibitor olaparib holds great promise in the treatment of breast cancer gene 1 mutation-driven ovarian cancer (Ledermann et al., 2014).
