Tumors constitute a large class of diseases that affect different organs and cell lineages. The molecular characterization of cancers of a given type has revealed an extraordinary heterogeneity in terms of genetic alterations and DNA mutations; heterogeneity that is further highlighted by single-cell DNA sequencing of individual patients. To address these issues, drugs that specifically target genes or altered pathways in cancer cells are continuously developed. Indeed, the genetic fingerprint of individual tumors can direct the modern therapeutic approaches to selectively hit the tumor cells while sparing the healthy ones. In this context, the concept of precision medicine finds a vast field of application. In this review, we will briefly list some classes of target drugs (Bcl-2 family modulators, Tyrosine Kinase modulators, PARP inhibitors, and growth factors inhibitors) and discuss the application of immunotherapy in tumors (T cell-mediated immunotherapy and CAR-T cells) that in recent years has drastically changed the prognostic outlook of aggressive cancers. We will also consider how apoptosis could represent a primary end point in modern cancer therapy and how "classic" chemotherapeutic drugs that induce apoptosis are still utilized in therapeutic schedules that involve the use of target drugs or immunotherapy to optimize the antitumor response.

中文翻译：

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精密医学时代的癌症细胞死亡。

肿瘤是影响不同器官和细胞谱系的一大类疾病。给定类型的癌症的分子特征显示出在遗传改变和DNA突变方面非同寻常的异质性。个体患者的单细胞DNA测序进一步突出了异质性。为了解决这些问题，不断开发出专门针对癌细胞中基因或改变途径的药物。确实，单个肿瘤的遗传指纹可以指导现代治疗方法选择性地击中肿瘤细胞，同时保留健康的肿瘤细胞。在这种情况下，精密医学的概念得到了广泛的应用。在这篇评论中，我们将简要列出一些目标药物（Bcl-2家族调节剂，酪氨酸激酶调节剂，PARP抑制剂，和生长因子抑制剂），并讨论了免疫疗法在肿瘤中的应用（T细胞介导的免疫疗法和CAR-T细胞），近年来已大大改变了侵袭性癌症的预后前景。我们还将考虑凋亡如何代表现代癌症治疗的主要终点，以及诱导凋亡的“经典”化疗药物如何仍用于治疗方案中，这些方案涉及使用靶标药物或免疫疗法来优化抗肿瘤反应。