Introduction to Pharmacoepidemiology & Pharmacogenomics Resources

Pharmacoepidemiology examines the benefit and risk of drugs used in populations and analyzes the outcomes of drug therapies. This includes detection and evaluation of drug-related adverse effects, assessment of risk vs. benefit ratios in drug therapy, patterns of drug utilization, and the cost-effectiveness of specific drugs.

Pharmacogenomics examines genetic variation on drug response in patients by associating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. Such approaches attempt to optimize drug response for each individual's unique genetic make-up.

NCI has developed this website to assist clinicians and researchers who are interested in investigating relationships between pharmaceutical agents, genomic factors, and cancer prevention and treatment. This website provides:

• a systematic compilation of pharmacoepidemiology resources,
• a table of the data elements contained within the pharmacoepidemiology databases,
• pharmacogenomics resources including research networks and initiatives, and
• cancer registry resources to encourage researches to innovatively combine information from these registries with information from the pharmaceutical databases.

The intent of this website is to stimulate research to assess the magnitude to which prescription drugs are associated with risk and/or benefit of cancer development; evaluate the risk of serious adverse acute events and longer-term effects associated with cancer drug therapies and drugs used to treat side-effects; and identify specific clinical and genomic profiles that could enhance optimal response to cancer therapy and minimize toxicity.