UBM Medica US announces that Cancer Network and the journal ONCOLOGY are presenting a two part primer report on targeted therapies in solid tumors. Targeted therapy has become both the centerpiece of the current era in cancer therapeutics and the foundation of the field's hope for future progress. Although the initial successes of targeted therapies occurred in hematologic malignancies, recent years have seen a string of promising results in a number of solid tumors.
In this two-part series in the UBM Medical journal ONCOLOGY, Dr. Franco Muggia and colleagues explore the progress that has been made in this area. Far more than just a compendium of trial results, these two articles address such fundamental questions as:
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How "targeted" are the so-called "targeted drugs"?
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In what way do targeted therapies constitute a meaningful improvement over chemotherapy?
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How can emerging targeted agents be integrated with older therapies (both endocrine therapies and chemotherapies)?
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What are the prospects for "targeted" immunotherapies?
In Part I, the authors discuss these and other questions with regard to targeted therapies for renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, malignant melanoma, and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (and other sarcomas). In Part II, they focus on developments in breast cancer, lung cancer, malignant colorectal cancer, and certain gynecological cancers.