Dr Mauro Donadio speaks to ecancer about his article that discusses how the personalisation of fluoropyrimidine treatment based on the identification of DPYD variants can mitigate toxicities and be cost-effective. He initially, discusses the background of the study.

Dr Donadio mentions that the recommendation of dose adjustment for chemotherapy guided by the presence of polymorphisms of the DPYD gene can potentially improve treatment safety for a large number of patients, saving lives, avoiding complications and reducing health care costs.

He explains the different DPYD variants and the difficulties of analysing individual variants.

Dr Donadio talks about the results of his study. He concludes by saying that comprehensive genetic testing of DPYD is needed in future studies involving the use of fluoropyrimidines.

The recommendation of chemotherapy dose adjustment guided by the presence of DPYD polymorphisms can become mandatory in the near future due to the potential number of lives that can be saved, complications that can be avoided and costs that can be reduced worldwide.

Read the study here.