More Evidence of the Need to Personalize Chemotherapy Dosing
Posted by Adrienne Choma on Fri, Sep 30, 2011 @ 09:23 AM
A study was just published last month in the Clinical Colorectal Cancer journal (Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 203-206, September 2011) that again reaffirms the need for a personalized approach to dosing 5- fluorouracil (5-FU) for colorectal cancer patients.
Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City, Utah, a specialty oncology laboratory, studied 357 colorectal cancer patients being treated with various drug regimens containing 5-FU to assess the effectiveness of currently accepted dosing based upon Body Surface Area (BSA). They found that when patients’ 5-FU dose is based on the current standard of care, only 21 percent of the patients achieved the target systemic drug exposure determined to provide optimal treatment efficacy. Fifty-one percent of patients were found to have insufficient drug in their bloodstream to effectively battle their cancer – they were under-dosed. And 28 percent were found to be over-dosed, which results in undue toxicity, reduced quality of life and may occasion the need for “drug holidays” because patients can’t tolerate their treatment.
Therefore the study showed that as a typical colorectal cancer patient, you only have a one-in-five chance to get the right amount of drug needed to effectively treat colorectal cancer. That’s not very encouraging! Clearly there is a need for personalized dosing.
Adrienne Choma, Founder & VP of Marketing & Sales