Targeted Vs Chemo - and targeted wins!

['lizbeth]

Well . . . I had typed up a long response and the system logged me out - as usual.

I don't quite agree with this:

Targeted therapies are typically not very effective when used singularly or even in combination with conventional chemotherapies. The targets of many of these drugs are so narrow that cancer cells are likely to eventually find ways to bypass them.

Physicians may have to combine several targeted treatments to try an achieve cures or durable responses for more complicated tumors like those that occur in the breast, colon and lung.

These targeted therapies produce limited results because they can help a relatively small subgroup of cancer patients. But when they work, they produce very good responses. With targeted therapy, the trick is figuring out which patients will respond. Tests to pinpoint those patients cannot be accomplished with genetic testing.

I feel comparatively to the success of chemotherapy, targeted treatments have significantly changed the treatments, disease free progression and overall survival for many cancer patient subgroups.

I understand about single use therapies. My good friend failed miserably on a PARP inhibitor. But she had gone through numerous treatments, alternatives. In fact, she is one of the only patients I know that was tested at Rational Therapeutics.

Part of the issue that might come up from functional profiling is to have the physician and patient on board to follow the best recommendation.

When the patient has to switch medical teams frequently to try and get the needed treatments to stay ahead of cancer and they are stage IV, stressed and ill, important decision making information seems to get lost or forgotten. Not everyone has an advocate, or a medical team that is vested in them beating cancer.