Practical guidelines for dose individualization of anticancer targeted drugs

For drugs such as anticancer agents every effort should be made to minimize inter-patient variability in drug exposure in order to maximize the benefit while maintaining an acceptable risk level of serious adverse effects. Anticancer drugs generally have a preferential route of elimination, either in urine or in bile and feces. In consequence, dose individualization to renal and liver function permits excessive toxicity to be avoided and expected therapeutic benefit to be achieved. However, less is known about the most appropriate starting doses of antineoplastic agents in these individuals. In this review, we discuss trials that have specifically assessed new targeted agents dosing strategies (mainly monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors) in the setting of overt biochemical renal and liver dysfunction and we proportionate recommendations and practical guidelines for dose individualization.