Precision or Personalized Medicine for Cancer Chemotherapy: Is there a Role for Herbal Medicine

Although over 100 chemotherapeutic agents are currently available for the treatment of cancer patients, the overall long term clinical benefit is disappointing due to the lack of effectiveness or severe side effects from these agents. In order to improve the therapeutic outcome, a new approach called precision medicine or personalized medicine has been proposed and initiated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. However, the limited availability of effective medications and the high cost are still the major barriers for many cancer patients. Thus alternative approaches such as herbal medicines could be a feasible and less costly option. Unfortunately, scientific evidence for the efficacy of a majority of herbal medicines is still lacking and their development to meet FDA approval or other regulatory agencies is a big challenge. However, herbal medicines may be able to play an important role in precision medicine or personalized medicine. This review will focus on the existing and future technologies that could speed the development of herbal products for treatment of resistant cancer in individual patients. Specifically, it will concentrate on reviewing the phenotypic (activity based) rather than genotypic (mechanism based) approach to develop herbal medicine useful for personalized cancer chemotherapy.