Bringing a genomic perspective to the safety of drug treatment in oncology

Unveiling the guidance heterogeneity for genome-informed drug treatment interventions among regulatory bodies and research consortia

Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine interventions hold promise to optimize drug treatment modalities and hence, improve the quality of life of the patients by minimizing the occurrence of adverse drug reactions and/or maximizing drug treatment efficacy. To this end, proper guidance for accurately prescribing the correct drug at the right dose is empowered by major regulatory bodies, namely the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicine Agency (EMA), and well-recognized research consortia, like the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC), that propose therapeutic recommendations after the thorough evaluation of the existing scientific evidence base. In this context, the consistency of these recommendations is crucial for smoothly integrating pharmacogenomics into the clinic. Here, we collected all of the important and clinically actionable pharmacogenomics information provided by the aforementioned renowned sources and documented it in order to assess potential similarities and, most importantly, differences. Our data show that the level of concordance regarding the guidance provided for the same drug-gene association pairs varies significantly, despite the fact that it all derives from a single evidence base. In particular, apart from the expected similarities in a number of association pairs, especially the ones related to cancer genomics, there are still major discrepancies that create confusion as to which guidance should be followed in order to properly inform drug prescribing. This regulatory deficiency calls for the fruitful engagement of the regulatory agencies involved with the contribution of other experts engaged in the field of pharmacogenomics in an effort to harmonize the existing arsenal of guidance for genome-informed drug prescription. The achievement of harmonization would in turn expedite bringing personalized medicine closer to clinical fruition.

The 9th Santorini Conference: Systems Medicine, Personalised Health and Therapy. "The Odyssey from Hope to Practice", Santorini, Greece, 30 September⁻3 October 2018

The 9th traditional biannual conference on Systems Medicine, Personalised Health & Therapy—“The Odyssey from Hope to Practice”, inspired by the Greek mythology, was a call to search for practical solutions in cardio-metabolic diseases and cancer, to resolve and overcome the obstacles in modern medicine by creating more interactions among disciplines, as well as between academic and industrial research, directed towards an effective ‘roadmap’ for personalised health and therapy. The 9th Santorini Conference, under the Presidency of Sofia Siest, the director of the INSERM U1122; IGE-PCV (www.u1122.inserm.fr), University of Lorraine, France, offered a rich and innovative scientific program. It gathered 34 worldwide distinguished speakers, who shared their passion for personalised medicine with 160 attendees in nine specific sessions on the following topics: First day: The Odyssey from hope to practice: Personalised medicine—landmarks and challenges Second day: Diseases to therapeutics—genotype to phenotype an “-OMICS” approach: focus on personalised therapy and precision medicine Third day: Gene-environment interactions and pharmacovigilance: a pharmacogenetics approach for deciphering disease “bench to clinic to reality” Fourth day: Pharmacogenomics to drug discovery: a big data approach and focus on clinical data and clinical practice. In this article we present the topics shared among the participants of the conference and we highlight the key messages.