Personalized medicine: genes, biomarkers and tailored treatment
Edited by: Sabina Alam
Collection published: 27 September 2012
Last updated: 23 January 2013
Personalized medicine is gaining recognition due to limitations with standard diagnosis and treatment; many areas of medicine, from cancer to psychiatry, are moving towards tailored treatment for individual patients based on their genetic signatures and clinical characteristics. Advances in whole genome sequencing have allowed the identification of genes involved in a large number of diseases, and biomarkers that indicate disease severity or susceptibility to treatment are increasingly being characterized.
The continued identification of new genes and biomarkers specific to disease subtypes and individual patients is essential for translation into personalized medicine, in terms of estimating both disease risk and response to therapy.
This article collection covers recent advances in personalized medicine across all areas of medical science and clinical practice, demonstrating that patient-tailored treatment is being employed for some diseases, whereas more work is required to translate scientific advances into the clinic for others.
We are seeking submissions of original research, reviews and debates offering insights into new advances in this exciting area of medicine. These articles will be published in BMC Medicine as part of this ongoing article collection, and if you would like your work to be considered you can send a pre-submission query to bmcmedicineeditorial@biomedcentral.com.
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Old drugs, old problems: where do we stand in prediction of rheumatoid arthritis responsiveness to methotrexate and other synthetic DMARDs?
Vasco C Romao, Helena Canhao, Joao E Fonseca BMC Medicine 2013, 11:17 (23 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
João Fonseca and colleagues review genetic and non-genetic predictors of response to therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and discuss how predictive markers could be used to select individual patients for the most appropriate treatment. |
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Genetics of scleroderma: implications for personalized medicine?
Shervin Assassi, Timothy RDJ Radstake, Maureen D Mayes, Javier Martin BMC Medicine 2013, 11:9 (11 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
Javier Martin and colleagues review recent advances in understanding the genetic basis of scleroderma, and discuss how genetic information can be included in clinical trial design to develop a personalized approach to monitoring and treatment. |
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Bariatric surgery: the challenges with candidate selection, individualizing treatment and clinical outcomes
KJ Neff, T Olbers, CW le Roux BMC Medicine 2013, 11:8 (10 January 2013)
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Carel le Roux and colleagues discuss the associated health benefits of bariatric surgery which can effectively reduce the burden of obesity, and review options for candidate selection for best outcome and the challenges of individualizing treatment. |
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Support of personalized medicine through risk-stratified treatment recommendations - an environmental scan of clinical practice guidelines
Tsung Yu, Daniela Vollenweider, Ravi Varadhan, Tianjing Li, Cynthia Boyd, Milo A Puhan BMC Medicine 2013, 11:7 (9 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
An analysis of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for chronic diseases shows that only a small proportion of CPGs make risk-stratified recommendations, and it is uncertain if they take benefit and harm into account for individual patients. |
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Meta-analysis: implications of interleukin-28B polymorphisms in spontaneous and treatment-related clearance for patients with hepatitis C
María A Jiménez-Sousa, Amanda Fernández-Rodríguez, María Guzmán-Fulgencio, Mónica García-Álvarez, Salvador Resino BMC Medicine 2013, 11:6 (8 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
Evidence from a meta-analysis suggests that IL28B polymorphisms affect hepatitis C treatment outcome and that the most appropriate genetic marker depends on ethnicity, suggesting that these factors should be considered when making treatment decisions. |
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Personalized medicine and atrial fibrillation: will it ever happen?
Steven A Lubitz, Patrick T Ellinor BMC Medicine 2012, 10:155 (4 December 2012)
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Steven Lubitz and Patrick Ellinor describe recent progress in understanding the genetics of atrial fibrillation, and discuss how genetic information can be applied in the clinic in a personalized approach to risk prediction and treatment. |
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Personalized medicine in multiple sclerosis: hope or reality?
Tobias Derfuss BMC Medicine 2012, 10:116 (4 October 2012)
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Tobias Derfuss reviews the progress made in biomarker discovery for multiple sclerosis and discusses how this can help develop a more personalized approach towards treatment of this highly heterogeneous disease.
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Stroke genetics: prospects for personalized medicine
Hugh S Markus BMC Medicine 2012, 10:113 (27 September 2012)
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Hugh Markus reviews the latest developments in stroke genetics, highlighting how the variants identified confer only a small risk of disease, and describes how pharmacogenomic approaches can be applied for patient-tailored therapy.
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Renal cancer biomarkers: the promise of personalized care
Naveen S Vasudev, Peter J Selby, Rosamonde E Banks BMC Medicine 2012, 10:112 (27 September 2012)
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Rosamonde Banks and colleagues review recent advances in the genetics and epigenetics of renal cell carcinoma, and discuss how personalized care is being developed through the characterization of biomarkers in the clinic.
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Is diagnosis enough to guide interventions in mental health? Using case formulation in clinical practice
Craig A Macneil, Melissa K Hasty, Philippe Conus, Michael Berk BMC Medicine 2012, 10:111 (27 September 2012)
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Craig Macneil and colleagues comment on the need for clinicians to take a personalized approach when treating patients with mental health disorders, so that the most appropriate intervention can be selected for patients by taking their individual factors into account.
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Individual differences and evidence-based psychopharmacology
RH Belmaker, Yuly Bersudsky, Galila Agam BMC Medicine 2012, 10:110 (27 September 2012)
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Editor’s summary
Robert Belmaker and colleagues comment on the importance of understanding individual differences for effective drug treatment of psychiatric disorders, and emphasize that patient heterogeneity should be reported in randomised clinical trials.
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