What is Dose Optimization?
Posted by Keith Galloway on Fri, Nov 06, 2009 @ 10:04 AM
The goal of every oncologist is to deliver chemotherapy to patients at doses that are the most efficacious without causing severe toxic effects. The optimal dose lies between doses that are too low to produce a positive response and those that are too high to avoid toxicity.
Compared to other fields of medicine, however, oncology tends to have among the lowest efficacy rates. One reason for this may be that oncologists often err on the side of under-dosing to minimize debilitating side effects. But if a patient receives levels of chemotherapy that are too low, the results are little to no therapeutic response, continued growth of tumors, developing resistance to the drugs, and a higher risk of disease recurrence.
Oncologists have been trained to administer and believe they are administering the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) in order to achieve and maintain the optimal level of a given cancer drug in patients' bloodstream. However, to date, doctors have not had the appropriate tools to verify whether the dose they give is actually the MTD for their individual patient. If the drug dose is too high, the patient suffers from excessive toxicity which can lead to severe adverse reactions and compromised immunity in patients, resulting in termination or interruption of treatment.
Dose optimization offers a solution to these ongoing challenges facing oncologists and patients. With personalized dose management, based on the testing of chemotherapy blood levels, oncologists can more reliably attain the optimal dose for each patient and maintain dose optimization throughout the course of treatment.
How is dose optimization achieved? Through blood testing of individual patients, oncologists can more accurately determine the most effective dose for the individual patient considering age, gender, weight, health status, genetics and other key factors. Repeat testing allows the oncologist to not only account for the fact that each patient absorbs, metabolizes, and eliminates drugs differently but also at a rate that varies over time. Adjustments in dosing can be made accordingly.
The benefits of dose optimization are multiple: more effective dosing, greater therapeutic response, and higher survival rates. Reduced toxicity also translates into better quality of life for patients.
With a tool like Personalized Chemotherapy Management Assays, dose optimization can become standard practice, raising the efficacy of treatment and improving outcomes for cancer patients.