Individualized Molecular Medicine: Linking Functional Proteomics to Select Therapeutics Targeting the PI3K Pathway for Specific Patients

In 1970s, President Nixon declared a war on cancer and signed the National Cancer Act with an expectation of finding a cure. For at least a subset of cancers such as childhood leukemias, we have made remarkable progress to the point where survival is an expectation rather than a rarity. Although we do not have one panacea for all human cancers, 30 years later, we understand that each type of cancer and potentially each person’s cancer is different, and it will take the development of rationale combination therapies to cure all cancers. To reach Nixon’s idealistic goal, medical oncology care will need to become individualized. Specifically targeted drugs continue to receive FDA approval and guide treatment selection on the basis of the underlying dysfunctional genetic, transcriptional, or protein regulation driving their tumor progression.