CJ: Future directions in neuropathic pain therapy: closing the translational loop. Oncologist 2010

The content of this article has been reviewed by independent peer reviewers to ensure that it is balanced, objective, and free from commercial bias. No financial relationships relevant to the content of this article have been disclosed by the independent peer reviewers. In the majority of patients, existing therapies for neu-ropathic pain are far from effective. Furthermore, all current treatments are symptomatic rather than dis-ease-modifying or curative. A range of therapeutic modalities is emerging, targeting a variety of mecha-nisms, but choosing the best target and evaluating the resulting therapies against the many types of neuro-pathic pain disorders is not an easy task. In this arti-cle, we suggest a shift in emphasis of the drug discovery paradigm toward unbiased evaluation of the particular neurobiological mechanisms contrib-uting to neuropathic pain in individual patients. Genomewide association studies and other discovery science approaches to identify significant novel tar-gets should be given priority as should the development of increasingly sophisticated tools for measuring and categorizing neuropathic pain. The Oncologist 2010; 15(suppl 2):24–2