Abstract

For more than 50 years it has been proven that genetic differences among people contribute to interindividual differences on the response to drugs commonly used in cancer treatments. In this century most drugs developed for the treatment of cancer are “Biological Drugs” forward molecular targets and its effect mainly depends on genetic variants that may be present in the tumor. Pharmacogenomics identifies genetic variations that may predict patients’ response to oncotherapy more efficiently. These variations significantly change among ethnic groups, and the assessment of the haplotypes may generate results that are highly correlated to the phenotype. Latin America is a region where its populations have different phenotypic characteristics due to the great inter-ethnic mixing. This genetic flow leads to the appearance of complex characteristics influenced by given geographic and environmental factors that allow individuals to get adapted to the region where they live. These evolving changes, most of them subtle, establish a profile that could help to develop the precision medicine through pharmacogenomic therapies on populations and individuals.