Abstract
To realize the full potential of promising new anticancer drugs, it is of paramount importance to administer them at the right dose. The aim of this educational article is to provide several opportunities to optimize anticancer drug dosing, focusing on oral targeted therapies. First, therapeutic drug monitoring can optimize exposure in individual patients, if the optimal concentration is known. This approach is of particular interest in regard to oral kinase inhibitors with high interindividual pharmacokinetic variability. If exposure is related to response, then therapeutic drug monitoring is potentially feasible, although the clinical utility of this approach has not yet been established. Other approaches to reduce variability include administration of more frequent, smaller doses and administration under optimal prandial conditions. However, for many drugs, the labeled dose has not been demonstrated to be the optimal dose; for such agents, the vast majority of patients may be receiving excessive doses, which results in excessive toxicity. Furthermore, administration of lower off-label doses may reduce both medical and financial toxicity. These strategies should be applied from registration studies to clinical practice, with the goal of better optimizing anticancer treatment.
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call