Using network biology to bridge pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in oncology.

If mathematical modeling is to be used effectively in cancer drug development, future models must take into account both the mechanistic details of cellular signal transduction networks and the pharmacokinetics (PK) of drugs used to inhibit their oncogenic activity. In this perspective, we present an approach to building multiscale models that capture systems-level architectural features of oncogenic signaling networks, and describe how these models can be used to design combination therapies and identify predictive biomarkers in silico.CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology (2013) 2, e71; doi:10.1038/psp.2013.38; published online 4 September 2013.