In the relentless battle against cancer, a groundbreaking paradigm shift has emerged, reshaping the landscape of treatment strategies. Precision medicine, an innovative approach, recognizes the inherent uniqueness of each cancer case and tailors therapies to the individual patient. This article explores the importance of Precision medicine, which has become a part of cancer care in the modern era.
Understanding the Basics of Personalized Medicine
According to the European Union, precision or personalized medicine is a medical model that helps to characterize an individual’s phenotypes and genotypes (e.g., molecular profiling, medical imaging, and lifestyle data) to create the right treatment strategy for the right person at the right time. This gives an outline of the patient to the doctor to select an appropriate medicine and dose for the disease. It is an alternative to the traditional one-size-fits-all approach in medicine.
Even Though the terms personalized and precision medicine are interchangeable, people often need clarification about personalized medicine as unique treatments that can be designed for each individual. To break this confusion, the National Research Council committee from the United States preferred precision medicine over personalized medicine.
The Evolution of Personalized/ Precision Medicine
The term “personalized medicine” was first introduced in 1999 by Robert Langreth and Michael Waldholz in their article “New Era of Personalized Medicine: Targeting Drugs for Each Unique Genetic Profile.” Before that, the renowned figure in modern medicine, Hippocrates, believed that treating diseases should involve addressing their origins and that the treatment administered should counteract the cause of the disease.
Archibald Garrod, credited as the pioneer of precision medicine, recognized the widespread existence of individual variations, termed “chemical individuality,” in both health and disease.
Impact of Personalized/ Precision Medicine
Personalized or precision medicine has a large impact on the healthcare sector. Some of them are given below:
- Tailored Treatments: It helps to treat people based on their genetic makeup, lifestyle, and specific health factors. It often leads to more effective and targeted interventions in treatments.
- Enhanced Diagnosis: It helps provide more accurate and early disease detection (genetic testing and advanced diagnostic tools). This helps with proactive management or prevention strategies.
- Reduced Adverse Effects: It helps lower the adverse effects of treatments by reducing unnecessary medications or procedures.
- Improved Patient Outcomes: Target treatments help to improve recovery rates and overall health outcomes.
- Cost-Efficiency: Although the initial expenses associated with implementing personalized approaches may be higher, there is a possibility for long-term reduction in healthcare costs by preventing diseases or eliminating ineffective treatments.
- Advancements in Research: Personalized medicine helps to understand disease mechanisms, genetic factors, and treatment responses in a better way.
- Integration of Technology: Precision medicine has given advancements in technology, such as genetic sequencing, bioinformatics, and data analytics, facilitating more precise and informed healthcare decisions.
The Benefit of Personalized Medicine In Cancer Care
Personalized medicine (PM) or precision medicine in oncology represents a developing methodology for treating and preventing tumors. PM holds promise in customizing treatments to target the specific genetic factors driving the tumor’s growth and adjusting the immune environment surrounding the tumor. Molecular biological techniques like genetic profiling help to find the inherited genetic variant that increases the risk of cancer. Treatments like targeted drugs and immunotherapies (checkpoint inhibitors) are administered based on the specific biological features of cancer cells.
For example, targeted therapies like anti-HER2 therapies (also called HER2 inhibitors or HER2-targeted therapies) are used to treat all stages of HER2-positive breast cancer (from early to metastatic stage).
Tailored Solutions, Transforming Cancer Care
The two main treatments used in personalized medicines are target therapy and immunotherapy. Both of them involve drugs to kill the cancer cells.
- Target therapy: Target therapy is a type of cancer treatment that particularly targets proteins that control the growth, division, and spread of the cancer cells. Anticancer medicines like trastuzumab, lapatinib, afatinib, neratinib, pazopanib, and pyrotinib are used as anti-HER2 therapies against breast cancer. The target drugs are effectively treating HER2-positive breast cancer.
- Immunotherapies: Immunotherapy are cancer treatments that help your immune system fight cancer. Immunotherapy drugs are used as a personalized medicine to treat the cancer cells. Some of the immunotherapy drugs that are used as personalized medicine are nivolumab, pembrolizumab, cemiplimab, durvalumab, and atezolizumab.
However, your doctor will treat you based on the stage and history of your health, along with the details obtained from the genetic profiling and other data collected from you.
Conclusion
Personalized medicine serves as a roadmap for addressing diseases influenced by multiple factors. It is also a revolutionary chapter for the cancer fighter that improves outcomes and enhances the quality of life. Advancements in research within this field are crucial to provide more effective treatments. We can support the cancer fighter by offering this personalized medicine for everyone’s affordability.