Is personalized medicine a panacea for health management? Some thoughts on its desirability

Excerpt

During the last decade we have witnessed a change in health care management. Predictive, personalized [1], individualized [2] or stratified [3] medicine are some of the terms that have been coined to describe a new approach to dealing with disease. In essence, the new paradigm is based on matching patients with the best treatments available according to each patient’s characteristics. Patients are classified through new tests, mainly genetic in nature, the growing proliferation of which is behind the extensive application of this new approach to managing disease. In parallel, new therapies, many based on new mechanisms of action and biological agents, allow ever narrower targets within the cell to be addressed. This combination of new diagnostic techniques and targeted therapies has improved the perspectives of managing some difficult conditions, such as some types of cancer, by controlling the progression of a disease and maintaining it rather as a chronic condition, even achieving a cure in some cases. This new paradigm is raising expectations for both patients and physicians. Health care systems are transforming the management of some diseases and re-writing treatment guidelines to incorporate the advantages of newly available therapies and approaches. However, notwithstanding the rapid development of these changes, there are some issues that should also be taken into account. Here, we highlight some elements that are frequently overlooked or taken for granted. …