Pharmacometrics and systems biology in oncology: Is there an intersection?

摘要

Oncology involves a therapeutic area with complex and individual disease states and disease progression and there is a limited number of anticancer drugs available. The drugs are usually administered in empirical complex dosing regimens which result in highly variable success rates. The following two approaches to achieve a more streamlined and rational drug development and drug treatment seem appealing:1. More sophisticated understanding of the patient's health/disease state and disease progression ("system").2. Development of new drugs with defined and tailored treatment regimens.