When Akshay s70 year old mother was diagnosed with breast cancer it had already spread to few of her bones. “ When I learnt my mother had stage 4 breast cancer I was worried as to how will she tolrate chemotherapy. But to my relief , my oncologist revealed that since my mother had a hormone positive breast cancer she can be treated with targeted drug Palbociclib with hormonal therapy. She is on oral tablets and is doing well for a year” This is how targeted therapy has helped avoid chemotherapy in some patients and has become the foundation of precision or personalised medicine.

Molecular targeted therapies are revolutionized cancer therapeutics. It refers to the use of drugs that targets specific molecules (molecular targets) to block the growth and spread of cancer cells. There are these specific genetic alterations that can distinguish cancer cells from normal cells and they can be used as molecular targets in the development of targeted drugs for cancer. Many molecular targeted therapies are now approved and have demonstrated remarkable clinical success in the treatment of various cancers like breast, leukemias, colorectal, lung, brain and ovarian cancers.