Pharmacogenetics in cancer chemotherapy: balancing toxicity and response

The goal of chemotherapy is the elimination of tumor cells from the host. This is achieved by the use of therapeutic agents that are often more harmful to normal tissues than to the targeted tumor. Many chemotherapeutic agents are designed to damage cell replication machinery either directly at the level of DNA or indirectly, by inhibiting enzymes involved with DNA repair and synthesis. Novel therapeutic agents that exert their effects at signal transduction pathways have advanced chemotherapy; however, a role for the classic chemotherapeutic agents remains. These classic agents are associated with tumor cell resistance, toxicity, and occasionally secondary neoplasia. Current practices for the dosing of therapeutic agents rely on height and body surface measurements or drug monitoring and Bayesian adaptive control. Pharmacogenetics is emerging as an alternate approach to managing chemotherapy that may prevent undertreatment while avoiding overtreatment and associated toxicities. By determining the polymorphic genetic makeup of the host and, in some instances, the altered genetic expression of the tumor, chemotherapy can be tailored for interindividual response and toxicity avoidance. Chemotherapy is particularly applicable to the pharmacogenetic approach to tailored therapy for a number of reasons. The margin of safety is low with chemotherapeutic agents. Some drugs require biotransformation for activation. Drug activation correlates with toxicity. The pathways of drug clearance or inactivation exhibit polymorphic differences. Interindividual, race-specific, and age-related responses to chemotherapeutic agents are common. Last, drug resistance can be inherent to the tumor as a result of the suppression of apoptosis. Variations in response and toxicity to a specific drug can be caused by alterations in drug-metabolizing enzymes or receptor expression. These effects can be classed as pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic differences. Some of the genes known to display polymorphic differences include FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase, FCG3RA IgG FC receptor, thymidylate synthase, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, thiopurine S-methyltransferase, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, aldehyde dehydrogenase, glutathione S-transferase, uridine diphosphate glyuronosyl transferases, N-acetyl transferases, cytochrome P450, and the DNA repair enzymes XPD and XRCC1. To be successful a pharmacogenetic approach to individualized chemotherapy must selectively take advantage of a determination of direct enzyme activity, gene expression, and genotype.