Personalized treatment for major diseases
October 22, 2008 by puffin
An interesting article in today’s Los Angeles Times concerns the growing trend among physicians to design individualized treatment for such illnesses as various cancers.
Personalized medical care is a practical benefit from the Human Genome Project, the 13-year project, completed in 2003, that gave scientists a precision map of the genetic information of humans. Completion of the genome project allowed them to easily locate genetic differences between individuals, including gene variations that cause disease, as well as molecular changes that sometimes turn cells rogue.
“This revolution in molecular biology has translated to understanding . . . the reasons why cancer grows,” says Dr. Roy S. Herbst, chief of the section of thoracic medical oncology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
According to this article, “Personalized medicine aims to minimize that one-size-fits-all approach by matching each patient to a specific treatment based on the genetic and molecular characteristics of that person’s tumor. Doctors can use genetic information gleaned from the tumor itself to choose — or avoid — certain medications for that patient. . . .”
Take a look at the article so you can be prepared to ask your physician to consider treatment beyond the formulaic should the need arise.
puffin
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I would imagine this will be quite expensive. I hope we end up with a government that will make health care a priority. It’s not right to reserve cutting edge care for just the rich and well insured.
I am with you, Meth. Health care has gone waaaay past the point where we can each carry our own bills. Either the gov. needs to limit what the health care industry can charge OR we need a national health plan that makes sense.
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment.