2017 Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 71-80
With a recent accumulation of numerous genome data, personalized medicine using genetic information begins to be realistic. In particular, cancer chemotherapy has entered the era of the molecular targeted therapy that selectively prevents the growth of cancer cells expressing driver oncogenes as represented by a mutated EGFR gene in lung cancer. In Japan, “companion diagnostics (CoDx)”, which are in vitro diagnostic drugs to maximize the benefits of molecular targeted drugs, were newly defined in 2013 and several CoDx have been already approved. This review provides an overview of CoDx in relation to the molecular targeted therapeutics against cancer.
