2022 Volume 92 Issue 1 Pages 1-7
Recent advances in molecular biology have led to identification of molecules associated with carcinogenesis and the development of molecular-targeted drugs that selectively attack qualitative or quantitative molecular changes in cancer cells. Molecular-targeted drugs are classified into "small molecules" and "therapeutic monoclonal antibodies" due to these modalities' difference in molecular weight. Molecular-targeted therapy is often guided by clinically meaningful biomarkers, including the gain or loss of function in cancer-related target genes, which could occur due to point mutations, amplification events, fusions, or deletions. Potent therapeutic effects can be expected from targeting mutations, called driver mutations, which directly underlie carcinogenesis, using corresponding molecular-targeted drugs. In recent years, the development of next-generation sequencing technologies has made it possible to quantitate expression of hundreds of gene sequences at once, and an oncogene panel containing genes related to cancer has been approved for coverage by the national health insurance in Japan. Precision Medicine is medical care designed to optimize efficiency or therapeutic benefits for particular patient groups or individual patients using genetic or molecular profiling. Precision medicine is finally underway in Japan due to recent advances in the development of molecular-targeted drugs and development of affordable diagnostic methods.
