Rationale: Targeted cancer therapy are drugs designed to interfere with specific molecules necessary for tumor growth and progression. Traditional cytotoxic chemotherapies usually kill rapidly dividing cells in the body by interfering with cell division and causing toxicity in normal cells too. Inter-individual pharmacokinetics (PK) variability is often large while variability observed in response to target therapy is influenced not only by the heterogeneity of drug targets, but also by the pharmacogenetic background of the patient (e.g. cytochome P450 and ABC transporter polymorphisms), patient characteristics such as adherence to treatment and environmental factors (drug-drug interactions).

Upgrading: This review aim to highlight the most recent FDA-approved anticancer drugs eligible for targeted therapies related to toxicity (i.e. genes of metabolic pathways) and resistance (i.e DNA repair genes). In addition, a comprehensive field related to drug-drug interaction, is proposed and discussed. Moreover, an early outline evaluation of the costs of the therapies were taken in consideration.

Conclusions: Based on these fields, the oncologists will have new means to make treatment decisions for their patients in order to maximize benefit and minimize toxicity.