Personalized medicine
Introduction
Genetic variability among different individuals poses the need to customize medication approach. The only solution to these is through the use of personalized medicine. One of the limiting factors to genetic testing is said to be fear for discrimination (Harmon, 2010). Personalized medicine is majorly based on using an individuals genetic profile to come up and get the best therapeutic choice by coming up with predictions as to whether that person will benefit from a specific and particular medicine or may suffer massive side effects. Generally, drugs are tested on large populations of people and the feed back of the report given (Clayton, 2006).
Most of the traditional clinical management and diagnosis focuses majorly on an individual’s patient’s signs and symptoms, family history and medical reports obtained from the laboratory. This is just but only a reactive approach of treatment. This is to say that medication and treatment often starts after the signs and symptoms have appeared. The latest advancements of medical and human genetics have enabled and led to a more detailed understanding of the effects and impacts of genetics in most of the diseases (Shastry, 2006).
Recent research projects have laid the foundation for understanding the role of genes in physiology and human development reveal those single nucleotide polymorphisms that are accountable to the genetic variability of individuals. This has made it possible for medical practitioners to use genome wide association’s studies to examine the genetic variations and the risks involved for most of the common diseases that exist today (PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute, 2009). For example oncology that deals with the study of the history of classifying the stages of tumor and there subsequent sub types that are based on pathologic and anatomic findings. It entails the histological examining and observation of the tumor specimens mostly from individual patients. Advancement in technology has led to new methods of analyzing and observing patients and diseases; one of them being the molecular testing method. This method has enabled an extension of this kind of approach to be included in testing for the global gene protein pathway and proteins way of expression and activation of profiles and the somatic mutations that take place in the cancer cells. This has enabled a better and refined method of prognosis among patients and suggestions of treatment options that are most likely to succeed and give hope to the patients (Harmon, 2010).
The study of cancer genetics involves the study of medical genetics that are mostly concerned with the hereditary cancer risks. It is said that there is a smaller number of cancer predisposition syndromes where alleles separate in a fashion that is dominantly autosomal. The study has led to a significantly elevated risk for certain types of cancers. For instance, familial cancer accounts for approximately 10% of all the cancers. Some genetic variants with fewer effects on an individual enable a simple and easy cancer risk assessment in an individual who does not have a strong family history that has cancer. One of its major advantages is that it leads to customized treatment i.e. a patient can be treated basing on the genetics of his body. This method is highly effective as it is customized to meet the patient’s body genes. One of its draw backs is that, there will no standardized production of medicines and medical procedure for diseases. This is because genes are different from one individual to another. In addition, it makes the cost of medication to be too high as a lot is spent to cater and meet the needs of each individual (Shastry, 2006).
Conclusion
Personalized medicine is important as well as dangerous in the medicine industry. There fore it goes without say that personalized medicine is very important and that it goes a long way to helping patients to fully recover from their diseases (PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute, 2009).
References
Clayton, T. (2006). Pharmaco-metabonomic phenotyping and personalized drug treatment”. Retrieved January 18, 2011, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature04648
Harmon, K. (2010). Genome Sequencing for the Rest of Us. Scientific American , 45.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute. (2009). Personalised Medicine. Retrieved January 18, 2011, from http://www.pwc.com/us/personalizedmedicine
Shastry, B. (2006). Pharmacogenetics and the concept of individualized medicine. Pharmacogenomics , 45.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]