To Test or Not To Test: Colon Cancer Pharmacogenetics and Predisposition Genetics

Abstract

Copyright: © 2011 Manace LC. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The challenge in pharmacogenetics is not only finding good markers, but also if and when to use them. In the case of colon cancer management, there are well-established genomic, proteomic and pharmacogenetic markers predicting efficacy of medical therapy and informing prognosis. The question before physicians and health care organizations is whether this testing has sufficient clinical utility-which is to say what individuals are appropriate to test, whether the testing is cost-effective, and if there is ultimately improved clinical outcome.