Personalized medicine is the use of detailed information about a patient's genotype or level of gene expression in order to select a medication, therapy or preventative measure that is particularly suited to that patient at the time of administration. The term emerged in the late 1990's with progress in the Human Genome Project. One important type of personalized medicine is pharmacogenomics.

An example of a personalized medication is Herceptin, a cancer drug that is only used in patients whose tumors overexpress a certain receptor.

The Harvard Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics was founded in 2001 with the specific goal of accelerating the realization of personalized medicine. The Personal Genome Project was announced by George Church in 2006; it will publish full genome sequences and medical records of volunteers in order to enable research into personalized medicine.

Not only is personalized medicine tailoring "the right drug, for the right person, at the right time" but it also includes evaluating predisposition to disease. Cancer genetics is a subspecialized field of genetics. This field initially dealt with the relatively small amount of inherited cancers. This amounted to about 5-10% of all cancers as estimated bt the National Institutes of Health.

Individuals diagnosed with familial breast, ovarian, colon cancer had been counseled in the past that they would receive standardized treatments and had limited options before their "condition" arrived. These options included removal of the organs that may give rise to cancer. Recent medical research indicates that medications, lifestyle changes and increased screening can mitigate some risk. An example is BRCA mutations where the carrier can have an increased lifetime risk of 85% for developing a breast cancer or up to 40% increased risk of getting ovarian cancer. Now medications such as tamoxifen are being shown to reduce incidence of disease.

The exciting news is that cancer predisposition genes and families are being identified by genetic testing and research at a break neck pace. Because all cancers require a dysfunction in the DNA of cells that regulate growth, it would be foolhardy not to expect all cancers to have some heritable predisposition as well as environmental influence.

Personalized medicine aims to identify these families at risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. Once identified by simple family history including a 3 generation pedigree or advanced genetic testing, the person could take preventative action. This might include changes in diet, cessation of toxic habits, earlier screening, exercise, prophylactic medications or surgery.

There are several universities involved in translating the burgeoning science into use. The difficulty is that medical education in all countries does not provide adequate genetic instruction.

Places that are currently developing a subspecialty in medicine that is known by several names including, molecular medicine, personalized medicine, or even prospective medicine include, Duke University in North Carolina USA, Harvard in Cambridge USA, The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. A medical school is currently being constructed in Arizona USA to teach the field of personalized medicine; this is a project of Arizona State University and a company called TGen.

Aside from Medical Universities private clinics such as Helix Health in New York City are immediately bringing personalized medicine to the masses.

External links

• The Personalized Medicine Coalition, a group of companies and research institutions devoted to the promotion of personalized medicine

Medicine