The
effectiveness of cancer treatments is contingent upon several factors and one
of those factors has been found to be race. Using lymphoblastoid cells from 589
patients, researchers attempted to identify the correlation between ethnicity
and drug potency. Patients identified themselves as either Hispanic or
Non-Hispanic/Caucasian. The variability in drug response to show a relationship
to genetic ancestry and race, specifically, the drug tremozolomide which treats
brain tumors. John Jack, Ph.D, the lead author and researcher stated, “The
developing field of "Personalized" or "precision medicine"
will leverage these types of data to help inform a doctor's decision on
selecting the optimal drug and dose for each patient.”
I
personally was interested in this article because it seemed to relate to the
research I’m apart of, studying responses to radiotherapy of African-Americans
with head and neck cancers versus European-Americans as discussed in the link
below. However, I find it restricting that the only races one could choose from
was Hispanic or Non-Hispanic/Caucasian. The article says that race and drug efficacy
are related but doesn’t state how, just that it does. A less broad study with more informative results of the same topic could truly benefit our
perspective of cancer treatment.
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