Pharmacogenomics is a growing area of medicine, and pharmacists across clinical practice settings have the opportunity to individualize medication selection and dosing using genetic data. However, many practicing pharmacists may feel ill-equipped to interpret pharmacogenomic test results because of insufficient education and training. Evidence-based, updated, and freely available resources such as the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium guidelines can help pharmacists interpret and apply pharmacogenomic test results to patient care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacogenetics promises to optimize treatment-related outcomes by informing optimal drug selection and dosing based on an individual's genotype in conjunction with other important clinical factors. Despite significant evidence of genetic associations with drug response, pharmacogenetic testing has not been widely implemented into clinical practice. Among the barriers to broad implementation are limited guidance for how to successfully integrate testing into clinical workflows and limited data on outcomes with pharmacogenetic implementation in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Patients with dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency are at high risk for severe and fatal toxicity from fluoropyrimidine (FP) chemotherapy. Pre-treatment DPYD testing is standard of care in many countries, but not the United States (US). This survey assessed pre-treatment DPYD testing approaches in the US to identify best practices for broader adoption.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study describes the validation of a clinical RNA expression panel with evaluation of concordance between gene copy gain by a next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay and high gene expression by an RNA expression panel. The RNA Salah Targeted Expression Panel (RNA STEP) was designed with input from oncologists to include 204 genes with utility for clinical trial prescreening and therapy selection. RNA STEP was validated with the nanoString platform using remnant formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded-derived RNA from 102 patients previously tested with a validated clinical NGS panel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFR, is frequently activated in lung cancer and glioblastoma by genomic alterations including missense mutations. The different mutation spectra in these diseases are reflected in divergent responses to EGFR inhibition: significant patient benefit in lung cancer, but limited in glioblastoma. Here, we report a comprehensive mutational analysis of EGFR function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGermline pathogenic variants in are associated with a moderate increase in the lifetime risk for breast cancer. Increased risk for other cancers, including non-medullary thyroid cancer (NMTC), has also been suggested. To date, data implicating variants in NMTC predisposition primarily derive from studies within Poland, driven by a splice site variant (c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrecision medicine has revolutionized clinical care for patients with cancer through the development of targeted therapy, identification of inherited cancer predisposition syndromes and the use of pharmacogenetics to optimize pharmacotherapy for anticancer drugs and supportive care medications. While germline (patient) and somatic (tumor) genomic testing have evolved separately, recent interest in paired germline/somatic testing has led to an increase in integrated genomic testing workflows. However, paired germline/somatic testing has generally lacked the incorporation of germline pharmacogenomics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The CYP2D6 enzyme metabolizes opioids commonly prescribed for cancer-related pain, and CYP2D6 polymorphisms may contribute to variability in opioid response. We evaluated the feasibility of implementing CYP2D6-guided opioid prescribing for patients with cancer and reported pilot outcome data.
Methods: Adult patients from two cancer centers were prospectively enrolled into a hybrid implementation-effectiveness clinical trial and randomized to CYP2D6-genotype-guided opioid selection, with clinical recommendations, or usual care.
Fluoropyrimidine (FP) chemotherapy is associated with severe, life-threatening toxicities, particularly among patients who carry deleterious germline variants in the DPYD gene. Pretreatment DPYD testing is standard of care throughout most of Europe; however, it has not been recommended in clinical practice guidelines in the United States. Due to increased risk of severe toxicity, a Citizen's Petition asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update language in FP drug labels to recommend DPYD testing as part of a boxed warning and recommend FP dose reduction in patients carrying deleterious germline variants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of hypoxic tumour cells in resistance to radiotherapy, and in suppression of immune response, continues to endorse tumour hypoxia as a bona fide, yet largely untapped, drug target. Radiotherapy innovations such as stereotactic body radiotherapy herald new opportunities for classical oxygen-mimetic radiosensitisers. Only nimorazole is used clinically as a radiosensitiser, and there is a dearth of new radiosensitisers in development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are highly effective for treatment of or -mutated lung cancer. Nevertheless, they are associated with several unique toxicities. Although the available US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug label can provide guidance for safety monitoring, its integration into clinical practice has not been previously described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSerotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs; i.e., citalopram, escitalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine, and sertraline), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetabolic networks are interconnected and influence diverse cellular processes. The protein-metabolite interactions that mediate these networks are frequently low affinity and challenging to systematically discover. We developed mass spectrometry integrated with equilibrium dialysis for the discovery of allostery systematically (MIDAS) to identify such interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe development of targeted therapies over the past two decades has led to a dramatic change in the management of -mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). While there are currently five approved EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for treating -mutant NSCLC in the first-line setting, therapy selection after progression on EGFR TKIs remains complex. Multiple groups are investigating novel therapies and drug combinations to determine the optimal therapy and treatment sequence for these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite the increased demand for pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing to guide antidepressant use, little is known about how to implement testing in clinical practice. Best-worst scaling (BWS) is a stated preferences technique for determining the relative importance of alternative scenarios and is increasingly being used as a healthcare assessment tool, with potential applications in implementation research. We conducted a BWS experiment to evaluate the relative importance of implementation factors for PGx testing to guide antidepressant use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough cyanide's biological effects are pleiotropic, its most obvious effects are as a metabolic poison. Cyanide potently inhibits cytochrome c oxidase and potentially other metabolic enzymes, thereby unleashing a cascade of metabolic perturbations that are believed to cause lethality. From systematic screens of human metabolites using a zebrafish model of cyanide toxicity, we have identified the TCA-derived small molecule glyoxylate as a potential cyanide countermeasure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) comprises a heterogeneous collection of malignancies that are typically associated with a poor prognosis and a lack of effective treatment options. We retrospectively evaluated the clinical utility of targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) among CUP patients to assist with diagnosis and identify opportunities for molecularly guided therapy.
Patients And Methods: Patients with a CUP at Moffitt Cancer Center who underwent NGS between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2019, were eligible for study inclusion.
Hypoxia-activated prodrugs are bioactivated in oxygen-deficient tumour regions and represent a novel strategy to exploit this pharmacological sanctuary for therapeutic gain. The approach relies on the selective metabolism of the prodrug under pathological hypoxia to generate active metabolites with the potential to diffuse throughout the tumour microenvironment and potentiate cell killing by means of a "bystander effect". In the present study, we investigate the pharmacological properties of the nitrogen mustard prodrug CP-506 in tumour tissues using spatially-resolved pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (SR-PK/PD) modelling.
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