The idea behind this Mini Issue is to combine the presentation of pharmacological innovation in three types of cancer (melanoma,
lung and thyroid cancer), accompanied by reference to several innovative recent patents, along with information about
harms related to the use of the new drugs.
The Mini Issue can serve as an introductory approach to the broader field of Pharmacovigilance.
Pharmacovigilance, or the monitoring of drug safety, is the international legal network which aims to improve patient safety
by early identifying adverse drug-related events. It is applied as continuous surveillance, both in post-marketing or in premarketing,
setting, in the real clinical practice and during the clinical trials, the typical research projects that are designed by
Pharmaceutical companies in order to obtain the marketing authorization for new patented drugs.
Clinical studies can also be performed in the form of spontaneous and non-profit research by universities and health institutions,
with the aim of testing and comparing the efficacy and toxicity of the treatments marketed, but in this case, the economic
resources are very limited when compared to the large capitals available to pharmaceutical companies.
The greatest push to the growth of modern Pharmacovigilance was in the 60’s, following the tragedy of Thalidomide, in
which thousands of babies were born affected by congenital malformations, by women who had taken the drug thalidomide
during pregnancy. The disaster caused by thalidomide changed the organization of pharmacovigilance, and spontaneous reporting
of adverse drug reactions became systematic and regulated by law in modern countries.
Being the guest editor of this Mini Issue, I’m convinced that the full content could interest many researchers and readers of
this prestigious journal. In addition to finding useful updates about the therapeutic trends and industrial pipelines for several
cancer diseases, readers will have the opportunity to approach information about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) in oncology
and safety of new drugs. In general, such kind of notions are still affected by a lack of emphasis by many medical journals, and
by under-reporting of individual cases of adverse events. However, the adverse effects can compromise the efficacy of anticancer
therapy, leading to therapy discontinuation, deterioration of clinical conditions and hospital stay prolongation times.
Further research is needed, to promptly identify potential harms associated with the use of new drugs; and also, in clinical
practice, we need a work without interruptions, to sensitize and educate healthcare professionals to a prompt detection and reporting
of every possible form of adverse event, presumably associated with the use of new drugs.
The manuscript includes three chapters relative to melanoma, lung cancer and thyroid cancer.