Putting a Magnifying Lens on Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Associated Challenges and Opportunities in Area of Cancer Research

In cancer research, pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics are developing fields that have the capability to have a huge impact on cancer healthcare and personalized medicine. Same prescriptions have been seen to exhibit significant variability in effectiveness and toxicity throughout the global community, and multiple studies conducted for the last four to five decades have suggested that an individual’s genetic composition may likely be the critical indicators of this individual variations in therapeutic action. By using multiple gene assessment and labeling of whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), the changes in therapeutic actions of a drug is investigated and documented in aspects of the drug’s PK/PD response. As a result, digging into this research field can yield useful basis for planning medication therapies, finding cancer pathogenesis, potential drug targets, and biomarkers that can be used as diagnostics and in preventing or treating the multifaceted disease “Cancer.” This chapter provides an overview of cancer pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics, as well as the gene-based impact on cancer, resistance development designs, obstacles in implementing pharmacogenetics or pharmacogenomics to the healthcare context, and physician viewpoints on the use of pharmacogenomics to personalized cancer treatment, as well as future directions in this field.