Abstract

It is well established that germline and somatic mutation biomarkers account for the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variability of the response to anticancer drugs. Certainly, cancer pharmacogenomics has substantially improved cancer therapy in the last years. The Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium and Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group have created clinical guidelines to spread pharmacogenomics knowledge and increase its clinical application. In addition, The Cancer Genome Atlas and International Cancer Genomics Consortium, among other consortia, have increased the knowledge on tumor genomics, across several types of cancer. Importantly, somatic mutations have been described as predictive biomarkers to target therapy in diverse types of cancer. Despite these great efforts in cancer genomics, comprehensive studies are needed for improving the understanding of the biological processes, associated with drug resistance, tumor evolution, and the microenvironment. Future challenges include concomitant analysis of germline and somatic mutations, development of liquid biopsy, and integrative genomics in cancer therapy. This chapter outlines the main findings in cancer pharmacogenomics, along with future opportunities and directions.