Figure 1.

The basis of personalized medicine is the knowledge of the environment, in this case the tumor’s microenvironment in each patient. The basic players of this disease include normal cells, tumor cells, the vasculature and the stroma, but the signals sent by these components and their features are different and give rise to patient-specific tumor heterogeneity. The identification of signals such as membrane receptors, proteases, angiogenic factors, and opsonins among others are key for the design and development of polymer therapeutics (PT) and the selection of those patients with maximal response.