Advantages and prospects of targeted therapy in oncological practice: A literature review

Abstract

Relevance: Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and is expected to be responsible for approximately 19.3 million new cases and 10 million deaths in 2021. With an unprecedented understanding of the molecular pathways that drive the development and progression of human cancers, novel targeted therapies have become an exciting new development for anti-cancer medicine. These targeted therapies, also known as biologic therapies, have become a primary treatment modality by blocking the growth of cancer cells by specifically targeting molecules required for cell growth and tumorigenesis. Due to their specificity, these new therapies are expected to have better efficacy and limited adverse side effects 
compared to other treatment options, including hormonal and cytotoxic therapies. 
The study aimed to provide a detailed overview of the advantages and prospects of using targeted therapy in oncological practice.
Мethods: The search was carried out in the following databases: Scopus, Medline, Cochrane, PubMed, ScienceDirect for 2016-2021. Sources were searched for the following keywords: clinical trials, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, small molecular weight inhibitors, targeted therapy.
Results: This review explores the clinical development, successes, and challenges facing targeted anti-cancer therapies, including both small molecule inhibitors and antibody-targeted therapies. The authors describe targeted therapies to epidermal growth factor receptor, vascular endothelial growth factor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, anaplastic lymphoma kinase, BRAF, T-cell mediated immune response inhibitors, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4, and programmed cell death protein-1/PD-1 ligand. 
Conclusion: Over the past decade, there have been significant changes in cancer treatment, including targeted therapy, which has become 
more common. However, targeted drugs show low activity in monotherapy. In addition, the selection of patients for targeted therapy remains a difficult task since there are not enough reliable biomarkers to predict the action of most targeted agents. This requires a deeper study of molecular biology, namely signaling pathways that determine the pathogenesis of oncological diseases.