Personalized Medicine

Smaller Larger

Personalized Medicine

Posted 11/13/2011

Posted in

Ok, after the delightful distractions of the past few days, I am back on track here. Thank many of you for your notes and calls;both mother and tiny daughter are doing well.

This is an article from Human Genomics about personalized medicine. We all know that is the growing direction of cancer research and treatment: figuring out which treatment is the most effective for a particular person. Many of these new drugs (herceptin etc) also have an easier side effect profile than standard chemotherapy--another big plus.

Here is the abstract and then a link to read more if you wish:

Personalized medicine: new genomics, old lessons

Kenneth Offit

Abstract Personalized medicine uses traditional, as well as emerging concepts of the genetic and environmental basis of disease to individualize prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Personalized genomics plays a vital, but not exclusive role in this evolving model of personalized medicine. The distinctions between genetic and genomic medicine are more quantitative than qualitative. Personal- ized genomics builds on principles established by the inte- gration of genetics into medical practice. Principles shared by genetic and genomic aspects of medicine, include the use of variants as markers for diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, as well as targets for treatment, the use of clinically vali- dated variants that may not be functionally characterized, the segregation of these variants in non-Mendelian as well as Mendelian patterns, the role of gene-environment interactions, the dependence on evidence for clinical utility, the critical translational role of behavioral science, and common ethical considerations. During the current period of transition from investigation to practice, consumers should be protected from harms of premature translation of research findings, while encouraging the innovative and cost-effective application of those genomic discoveries that improve personalized medical care.