Vol 6, No 5 (2010)
Review paper
Published online: 2011-01-19
The role of pathologist in cancer patients selection for EGFR-targeted therapy
Onkol. Prak. Klin 2010;6(5):228-235.
Abstract
Targeted therapy has become an important modality of cancer treatment in the last decade. Drugs against
EGFR and HER2 e.g. erlotinib, cetuximab or trastuzumab proved its role n therapy. They are managed
as registered and recommended modalities of lung, alimentary tract and breast carcinoma. Significance
of targeted treatment is a common effect of drug action and patient selection. Only a part of patients with
tumors belonging to a specific histological type of cancer can benefit from targeted therapy. Determining
predictive factor — informating on potential response to therapy — is essential for proper treatment in
targeted therapy. Patients’ selection is accomplished by pathological methods with help of molecular biology
techniques. Patient selection for targeted treatment and predictive factors evaluation criteria as well
as establishing connections with traditional tumor characteristics (e.g. histological type, grade, stage) are
continuously under research. Predictive factors are also investigated for traditional chemotherapeutics in
recent years. Value of particular predictive factor depends on choice of evaluation method.
Onkol. Prak. Klin. 2010; 6, 5: 228–235
Keywords:
predictive factorstargeted therapypathologymolecular biology
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