Lecture on Pharmacogenomics and Cancer

Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. By doing so, pharmacogenomics aims to develop rational means to optimise drug therapy, with respect to the patients' genotype, to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects. Such approaches promise the advent of "personalized medicine"; in which drugs and drug combinations are optimised for each individual's unique genetic makeup.


In this lecture, Ogechi N. Ikediobi, UCSF School of Pharmacy, discusses pharmacogenomics (how an individual's genetic inheritance affects the body's response to drugs) and cancer.

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Transcripts form lecture

• According to the World Health Organization cancer is the second leading cause of death in developed countries.but is also among the leading causes of death and develop among adults in developing countries .as well as edit increasing proportion of elderly people in the world and that is estimated to result in 16 million new cases of cancer a by year 2020 so statistics paint a picture that cancer is going be a socio-economic and Health burden for not only developed countries but also for developing nations
• cancer can be classifed into two parts
• Inherited (germline)-5-10% of cancers
• Acquired (somatic) 90-95 % cancers
• Inherited cancer usually manifest themselves at earlier age whereas most cancers manifest the during living .
• cancer is largely a disease of aging because most cancers at the 90% of them are due to acquired mutation of the cells which is correlated with living longer.
• cancer occurs in a multistage process and this theory is based on the work of several scientists accumulated over many years and the theory is cancer arises from the transformational of the genetic material of the normal cell that transforms cell then acquires subsequent successive mutations in its Genome then lead to uncontrolled growth is define as tumor or cancers