Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Jul 1;3(4):680-4.
doi: 10.1177/193229680900300411.

The case for personalized medicine

Edward Abrahams  1 , Mike Silver
Affiliations
Review

The case for personalized medicine

Edward Abrahams et al. J Diabetes Sci Technol. .

Abstract

Personalized medicine may be considered an extension of traditional approaches to understanding and treating disease, but with greater precision. Physicians may now use a patient's genetic variation or expression profile as well as protein and metabolic markers to guide the selection of certain drugs or treatments. In many cases, the information provided by molecular markers predicts susceptibility to conditions. The added precision introduces the possibility of a more preventive, effective approach to clinical care and reductions in the duration and cost of clinical trials. Here, we make the case, through real-world examples, that personalized medicine is delivering significant value to individuals, to industry, and to the health care system overall and that it will continue to grow in importance if we can lift the barriers that impede its adoption and build incentives to encourage its practice.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Examples of how patients respond differently to medications.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Priorities for personalized medicine. 2008. Sep, http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/PCAST/pcast_report_v2.pdf. Accessed June 19, 2009.
    1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Table of valid biomarkers in the context of approved drug labels. http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ScienceResearch/ResearchAreas/Pharmacogenetics/.... Accessed June 19, 2009.
    1. Nelson HD, Huffman LH, Fu R, Harris EL. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Genetic risk assessment and BRCA mutation testing for breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility: systematic evidence review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Ann Intern Med. 2005;143(5):362–379. - PubMed
    1. National Cancer Institute. BRCA1 and BRCA2: cancer risk and genetic testing. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/brca. Accessed May 27, 2009.
    1. Struewing JP, Hartge P, Wacholder S, Baker SM, Berlin M, McAdams M, Timmerman MM, Brody LC, Tucker MA. The risk of cancer associated with specific mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 among Ashkenazi Jews. N Engl J Med. 1997;336(20):1401–1408. - PubMed