Personalized Medicine: An Exciting Step in Healthcare

In one of the largest scientific projects, the Human Genome Project, which began in 1990 and completed in 2003, scientists discovered something interesting: human DNA is 99.9% identical across all people. That means only 0.1% of our genetic code makes us different from each other. This tiny difference can explain why some people are more prone to certain diseases, why others don’t respond to certain medications, and why drug dosages can vary from person to person.

Today's medicine usually does not tailor treatment plans based on individual genetic differences. Most patients are prescribed similar types of medication. If a patient does not benefit from the initial treatment, another therapy is then tried. In such cases, the patient may have taken unnecessary medication, valuable treatment time may have been wasted, and significant side effects may have occurred.

Here's Where Personalized Medicine Comes In!

Human DNA- Personalized Medicine

Personalized medicine changes the game by looking at your unique genetic makeup to find the treatment that works best for you. Instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach, doctors can analyze your genes, family history, and environment to choose the most effective treatment from the start. This could result in fewer side effects and less time wasted on ineffective treatment.

A Real-Life Example: Herceptin for Breast Cancer

Let’s take a look at a real-world example: Herceptin, a drug used to treat breast cancer. In some people, a gene called Her-2 mutates and produces too many receptors, causing the cancer to grow uncontrollably. Regular cancer drugs might not work for these patients. But if a genetic test shows that a patient has this mutation, Herceptin can be used to treat them. About 20% of breast cancer patients have this mutation, and with personalized medicine, they could avoid unnecessary and exhausting treatments, going straight to the one that might work better.

Preventing Disease Before It Starts

One of the most exciting possibilities of personalized medicine is its potential for preventive treatment. Right now, most treatments only start once symptoms appear. But what if we could predict future health risks based on your genes? By doing genetic tests early in life, doctors could identify potential diseases before they even show up. Imagine being able to avoid a serious illness entirely because you began a preventive treatment.

Designed Medicines for Personalized Medicine

Challenges Ahead

Of course, as with any new technology, there are challenges associated with the widespread use of this method. The human body is complex, and genes often interact with each other in ways we don’t fully understand yet. Plus, to make personalized medicine widely available, we’ll need bigger biobanks to store genetic data and better technology for gene testing, sequencing, and patient monitoring. Integrating this approach into regular healthcare will also take time.

But despite these hurdles, personalized medicine has the potential to revolutionize healthcare.

REFERENCES

[1] F. R. Vogenberg, C. I. Barash, and M. Pursel, “Personalized medicine - Part 1: Evolution and development into theranostics,” P T, vol. 35, no. 10, 2010.

[2] I. S. Chan and G. S. Ginsburg, “Personalized medicine: Progress and promise,” Annu. Rev. Genomics Hum. Genet., vol. 12, pp. 217–244, 2011, doi: 10.1146/annurev-genom-082410-101446.

[3] M. J. Joyner and N. Paneth, “Seven Questions for Personalized Medicine,” JAMA - J. Am. Med. Assoc., vol. 314, no. 10, pp. 999–1000, 2015, doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.7725.

[4] S. Mathur and J. Sutton, “Personalized medicine could transform healthcare (Review),” Biomed. Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 3–5, 2017, doi: 10.3892/br.2017.922.

[5] L. H. Goetz and N. J. Schork, “Personalized medicine: motivation, challenges, and progress,” Fertil. Steril., vol. 109, no. 6, pp. 952–963, 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2018.05.006.

[6]‘‘Can epigenetics help fuel personalized medicine revolution in cancer treatment? ’’ [Online]. Avaible: https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2017/04/27/can-epigenetics-help-fuel-personalized-medicine-revolution-cancer-treatment/[Accessed : 22.10.2020]