What is personalized medicine
Personalized medicine is a young but rapidly advancing field of healthcare that
is informed by each person's unique clinical, genetic, genomic, and
environmental information. Because these factors are different for every person,
the nature of diseases—including their onset, their course, and how they might
respond to drugs or other interventions—is as individual as the people who
have them.
Personalized medicine is about making the treatment as individualized as the
disease. It involves identifying genetic, genomic, and clinical information that
allows accurate predictions to be made about a person's susceptibility of
developing disease, the course of disease, and its response to treatment.
In order for personalized medicine to be used effectively by healthcare providers
and their patients, these findings must be translated into precise diagnostic
tests and targeted therapies. This has begun to happen in certain areas, such
as testing patients genetically to determine their likelihood of having a serious
adverse reaction to various cancer drugs.
Because the 2003 sequencing of the human genome provided crucial insight
into the biological workings behind countless medical conditions, scientists and
physicians are advancing the field of personalized medicine at a fast pace. It is
not yet an established part of clinical practice, but a number of top-tier medical
institutions now have personalized medicine programs, and many are actively
conducting both basic research and clinical studies in genomic medicine.
Specific advantages that personalized medicine may offer patients and clinicians
include:
Ability to make more informed medical decisions
Higher probability of desired outcomes thanks to better-targeted therapies
Reduced probability of negative side effects
Focus on prevention and prediction of disease rather than reaction to it
Earlier disease intervention than has been possible in the past
Reduced healthcare costs
Personalized medicine is not to be confused with "genetic medicine." Genetics, a
field more than 50 years old, is the study of heredity. It examines individual
genes and their effects as they relate to biology and medicine. "Single cell"
genetic diseases include muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell
anemia. (However, even these seemingly "simple" hereditary disorders can be
influenced by other genes, as well as by environmental factors such as diet and
exposure to toxins.)
Genomic and personalized medicine aims to tackle more complex diseases,
such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, for years believed to be influenced
primarily by environmental factors and their interaction with the human genome.
It is now understood that because these diseases have strong multigene
components—and in some cases might be caused by errors in the DNA between
genes instead of within genes—they can be better understood using a whole-
genome approach.
Should personalized medicine only be used for sick people?
Definitely not. Because an individual's genome influences his or her likelihood of
developing (or not developing) a broad range of medical conditions,
personalized medicine focuses strongly on wellness disease prevention.
For example, if a person's genomic information indicates a higher-than-average
risk of developing diabetes or a particular form of cancer, that person may
choose a lifestyle, or sometimes be prescribed medications, to better regulate
the aspects of health and wellness over which he or she has control. The
person may benefit in the long run from making preventive lifestyle choices that
will help counteract the biological risk.
Genomic medicine may help determine a person's risk of developing several
specific medical conditions, including:
Cancer
Cardiovascular disease
Neurodegenerative diseases
Diabetes
Obesity
Neuropsychiatric disorders
Researchers are actively investigating the genomic and genetic mechanisms
behind—and developing predictive testing for—such diverse medical conditions
as:
Infectious diseases, from HIV/AIDS to the common cold
Ovarian cancer
Cardiovascular disease
Diabetes
Metabolic abnormalities
Neuropsychiatric conditions, such as epilepsy
Adverse drug reactions
Environmental exposure to toxins
Cullage: health.usnews.com
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