Did you know that medical errors kill more people than cancer, diabetes, or motor accidents in Malaysia? Since so much is unknown about the genetic and environmental factors causing many major diseases, doctors have to rely on guesswork. But personalized medicine may soon give way to a more precise method of diagnosis. More importantly, it could even stop diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer dead in their tracks.
What Is Personalized Medicine?
Also known as precision medicine or genomic medicine, personalized medicinetailors medical decisions and interventions to individual patients. It utilizes molecular profiling to aid doctors in detecting gene mutations. These mutations may be due to a person’s unique environment, biology, or lifestyle.
In addition, molecular profiling enables doctors to identify other things like cancer biomarkers. This early detection plays a huge role in predicting the chances of a patient contracting cancer. Detecting biomarkers also lets doctors customize effective strategies to prevent cancer and other major diseases.
Reactive vs Preventive
This approach shifts from a previously reactive method to a preventive one. In the past, people have deemed medicine effective based on the fact that it works for most people. But why it doesn’t for the remaining patients is a mystery that has been swept under the rug. As a result, patients need to bear with costly trial-and-error approaches and failed attempts to treat symptoms of misdiagnosed diseases.
Molecular profiling has shown that every individual has a unique genetic code that affects their health in ways we cannot see. By harnessing data on the genetic level, doctors can break the limitations of traditional medicine. Although it is still a relatively new field of study, personalized medicine has paved a trail to a brighter future for healthcare.
Precise Diagnosis in Personalized Medicine
Special blood tests could potentially identify tumor DNA instead of using expensive PET scans that emit high levels of radiation. This can tell doctors if patients are responding to treatment or are in remission. Prescribing drugs based on the tumor’s genetic make-up instead of the type of cancer is a radical approach that could transform the future of medicine.
Reduced Risk of Side Effects
Data collected from patients’ genes can predict how different patients will react to a type of medicine. It also informs the doctor on whether or not any harmful side effects will occur, taking out the guesswork involved. Therefore, patients can avoid side effects that might develop from taking an unsuitable drug.
Re-engineer Cells to Fight Cancer
Another way personalized medicine can help is through CAR T-cell therapy. This method involves taking T-cells from the blood of cancer patients and genetically engineer them to attack the cancer cells in their own body.
Prevention over Treatment
Myriads of treatmentscan never compare to an effective method to slow or stop the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The advent of a way to single out biomarkers linked to the diseases may soon promise a whole new approach to prevent them entirely.
Without a doubt, discussions about the future of medical breakthroughs that personalized medicine will bring are exciting. However, we can’t forget how far current practices and medicine have brought us. They did, after all, lay the foundation for new discoveries.
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