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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Implementation of In Vitro Drug Resistance Assays: Maximizing the Potential for Uncovering Clinically Relevant Resistance Mechanisms
08:46

Implementation of In Vitro Drug Resistance Assays: Maximizing the Potential for Uncovering Clinically Relevant Resistance Mechanisms

Published on: December 9, 2015

Drug resistance in cancer: a perspective

J H Goldie1

  • 1University of British Columbia and BC Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver, Canada. j_goldie@telus.net

Cancer Metastasis Reviews
|February 8, 2002
PubMed

Insights

Overcoming cancer drug resistance is challenging due to tumor heterogeneity. New molecular insights offer hope for targeted therapies, but drug development systems hinder personalized treatment.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Drug resistance is a major barrier to effective systemic cancer therapy.
  • Tumor genetic instability and molecular heterogeneity complicate treatment development.
  • Current drug development systems are not optimized for personalized cancer medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore new insights into molecular mechanisms of drug resistance.
  • To identify pathways for developing more specific and effective cancer therapies.
  • To address limitations in the drug development system for personalized treatments.

Main Methods:

  • Review of current literature on cancer drug resistance.
  • Analysis of molecular targets of antitumor agents.
  • Evaluation of drug development paradigms for personalized medicine.

Main Results:

  • Understanding molecular mechanisms can guide the development of targeted therapies.
  • Exploiting the link between drug resistance and malignancy's fundamental abnormalities is key.
  • Significant challenges exist in the current drug development system for timely, patient-specific programs.

Conclusions:

  • Advances in molecular understanding offer potential for overcoming drug resistance.
  • Developing patient-specific cancer therapies requires significant improvements in drug development processes.
  • Future research should focus on both molecular targets and systemic drug development reforms.

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