Opinion: Mitigating chemotherapy toxicity with simple genetic tests

Although treatment options like immunotherapy are known to be less toxic, conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy continues to be the standard treatment for patients with cancer, according to David Kerr, M.D., professor of cancer medicine at the University of Oxford.

In an opinion piece published by The Los Angeles Times, Dr. Kerr explained that chemotherapy is effective at eliminating cancer cells; however, the treatments also cause a variety of severe and potentially fatal adverse effects — including bone marrow suppression, sepsis and cell destruction in the mouth and bowel. Rates of toxic death, where chemotherapy is directly linked to a patient’s death, range from 0.5% to 3.1%, but can be as high as 13% — depending on the intensity of the regimen, the baseline age and health of the patient and their genetic makeup.

Researchers have identified strategies to reverse these adverse effects. For instance, Dr. Kerr suggested that clinicians utilize pharmacogenetics to determine which patients may respond poorly to chemotherapy and tailor doses to minimize the risk of treatment-related adverse effects. He noted that developing internationally accepted dosing guidelines for certain drugs with a high risk of hospitalization and death have helped improve hospitalization rates, survival and health care costs.

Nonetheless, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet mandated the use of genetic screenings prior to the initiation of chemotherapy. Dr. Kerr concluded that requiring these simple blood tests could help tailor cancer care to the individual patient.

Read more: The Los Angeles Times

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