A therapy is not equally\neffective in all patients with the same disease, and in some it can in fact\ncause severe adverse effects. Personalised medicine is an overarching term used\nto describe the strategy of developing medicinal products that are better\nadapted to the individual patient. It also enables more precise diagnoses to be\nmade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In personalised medicine,\nthe aim is to use knowledge about the patient\u2019s individual biological or\ngenetic profile in addition to the clinical picture to assess before treatment\nstarts whether the patient is likely to respond to a specific therapy. Specific\ncircumstances in which, for example, the patient\u2019s genetic profile plays a role\ncan be identified using modern biomarkers. These are measurable parameters\nwithin biological processes that have a prognostic or diagnostic value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this way, personalised\nmedicine aims to identify different causes and patterns of disease and to\ndevelop corresponding treatments. One example is breast cancer. Breast cancer\ncells are abnormal cells in the body whose growth mutates and spirals out of\ncontrol as a result of certain genetic changes. They differ in genetic terms,\nand this influences the success of therapy. Around one quarter of all breast\ncancer patients over-express the protein HER2 in their cancer cells. Compared\nwith an HER2-negative tumour, an HER2-positive tumour takes a more aggressive\ncourse and the tumour recurs more rapidly, which is why a personalised approach\nto therapy is so important for HER2-positive patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This approach has enabled a\nspecific antibody to HER2 to be developed that stops further growth of the\ntumour and activates the body\u2019s immune defences. This therapy is beneficial\nsolely for patients with over-expression of HER2 receptors, meaning that the\nHER2 status of women with breast cancer needs to be determined as early as\npossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This example shows that\npersonalised medicine increases the success of a therapy while at the same time\nreducing the cost to the health system and sparing patients unnecessary\ntreatments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet personalised medicine\nfocuses not only on efficacy but also on improving the tolerability of therapy.\nWhether a patient tolerates an active substance or it causes more adverse\neffects than usual can also be determined by that patient’s DNA. In cases of\nAIDS, for example, a specific mutation of the HLA-B5701 gene is linked to\nhypersensitivity to a certain medicinal product. Nowadays, therefore, a test is\nfirst carried out to see whether a patient carries the mutated gene or not.\nFewer adverse effects during therapy means a better quality of life for\npatients and this in turn encourages them and their doctors to have greater\nconfidence in that therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Personalised medicine is no\nlonger a vision of the future. It has already arrived in the Swiss healthcare\nsystem and many authorised active substances are available for specific patient\ngroups. A companion diagnostic test is required, or at least recommended, for\nmost of these active substances. The development of new gene and cell therapies\nhas also been boosted by the discovery of the CRISPR\/Cas process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In spite of all the progress that has been made, it is still an enormous challenge to implement personalised medicine in the real-life setting of doctors\u2019 practices and hospitals. The results of a survey carried out by the Swiss medical journal Schweizerische \u00c4rztezeitung show that improved postgraduate medical training plays an important role. In the survey, 35 percent of respondents said they did not feel well (or at all) informed about personalised medicine, 48 percent felt moderately well informed and 17 percent felt (very) well informed.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A therapy is not equally effective in all patients with the same disease, and in some it can in fact cause severe adverse effects. Personalised medicine is an overarching term used to describe the strategy of developing medicinal products that are better adapted to the individual patient. It also enables more precise diagnoses to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4178,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/unterthema.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4028","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n