Convergence of biomarkers, bioinformatics and nanotechnology for individualized cancer treatment

Abstract

Recent advances in biomarker discovery, biocomputing, and nanotechnology have raised new opportunities for the emerging field of personalized medicine in which disease detection, diagnosis, and therapy are tailored to each individual’s molecular profile, and also for predictive medicine that uses genetic/molecular information to predict disease development, progression, and clinical outcome. Here we discuss advanced biocomputing tools for cancer biomarker discovery and multiplexed nanoparticle probes for cancer biomarker profiling, together with prospects and challenges in correlating biomolecular signatures with clinical outcome. This bio-nano-info convergence holds great promise for molecular diagnosis and individualized therapy of cancer and other human diseases.

Is “Me, Me, Me” the New “We, We, We”?: Can We Afford (Not) to Take the Plunge into the Personalised, Stratified Medicine Era?

“…Numerous proteins and genes exist that are specifi cally associated with for example breast cancer growth, proliferation, and metastasis. The deeper understanding of their roles regarding the responses of various therapies may empower physicians to determine optimal treatments for patients with breast cancer [ 39 ].…”

Nanoinformatics: a new area of research in nanomedicine

“…[33][34][35] Advances in nanotechnology design and delivery can allow delivery of a drug to a targeted tissue, release of a drug at a controlled rate, treatments for drug detoxification, 36 or detection of the early stages of a carcinogenic process. 37,38 For instance, Doxil ® and Abraxane ® are two nanodrugs already approved and currently available. 33 The unique properties or "nano" characteristics of a nanomaterialincluding size, shape, charge, biocompatibility, solubilitycan be critical factors in enabling and facilitating important biofunctional goals like tumor penetration.…”

DNA Repair, Cancer and Cancer Therapy

“…Thus, optimized treatments for individual patients will eventually lead to better clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction (Spears et al, 2001). Over the past decade, advances in genomics and proteomics have accelerated our understanding of individual differences in genetic makeup, allowing a more personalized approach to healthcare (Faratian et al, 2009;Marko-Varga et al, 2007;Phan et al, 2009;Yeatman et al, 2008). The prediction of treatment outcome based on an individual's biological information represents the future of oncology medicine -so called personalized medicine.…”