Klin Onkol 2000; 13(6): 183-186.
Summary: The key problem of current anticancer therapy is the prediction of it’s effectiveness in the eradication of tumor mass on the one hand and treatment of toxicity on the other. So far, various factors influencing the patient’s and tumor’s response to therapy have been identified. Among the most important of these are tumour gene alterations and the pharmacogenetic phenotype of the patient. However, the majority of the factors remain to be elucidated. Using the example of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia bearing a complex karyotype or hyperdiploidia we demonstrate a higher
susceptibility of these cells to L-asparaginase and methotrexate respectively. We also surmise that there is an enormous susceptibility of patients with genomic instability syndromes to various DNA damaging events. In the case of one patient suffering from Nijmegen breakage syndrome we would like to stress the importance of individualization of the cancer treatment protocol to prevent the lethal toxicity of anticancer therapy.
