Recently, a medicine was approved in Argentina that works against both pediatric and adult cancers, based on the genetic profile of the tumor. This further expands the supply of anti-cancer medicines in the world and shows how oncological products are becoming more and more specific.

Two professionals in the area comment on how science is moving in this direction. An oncology specialist at the University Complex of La Coruña points out that, “nowadays, we no longer treat all patients in the same way; today we must look for these molecular alterations in patients in order to be able to offer them the best therapeutic alternative.” Likewise, a doctor from the Oncology Department of the General Hospital of Alicante, emphasizes that: “The technological possibilities of sequestering the genome or identifying alterations in the genes of tumor cells have led to a transition from anatomic-based diagnoses to current biomolecules-based diagnoses.”

In this context, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its list of essential medicines, which includes several anti-cancer products, among them: enzalutamide, which works against prostate cancer; everolimus, which is used against a type of brain tumor in children; ibrutinib, directed against chronic lymphocytic leukemia; and rasburicase, for tumor lysis syndrome, a serious complication of some cancer treatments. The aim of the list is to identify the medicines that provide the greatest benefits and should be made available in an affordable way to the population.

The progress of medical science in the different subgroups of anti-cancer medicines opens up endless possibilities for pharmaceutical companies and for the population, since according to data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), cancer is one of the main causes of mortality in the American continent.

According to this international organization, the types of cancer most frequently diagnosed in men are prostate, lung, colorectal and bladder cancer. And in women those are: breast, lung, colorectal and uterine cancer.