There is a lot of connection between the terms “precision medicine” and “personalized medicine.” According to the National Research Council, “personalized medicine” is an older term with a meaning similar to “precision medicine.” Precision medicine is a method to patient care that allows doctors to select treatments that are most likely to help patients based on a patient’s genetic content or other molecular or cellular analysis. Precision Medicine refers to the modifying of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient. In modern oncology care, it’s mainly about getting the correct drugs to the appropriate patient at the right time.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Precision Medicine Initiative defines precision medicine as “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person.”
There is some evidence that is more proficient targeted medication therapies can help to drive down medicinal costs, in addition to that this will help in improving patient care.
Some of the treatments that are possible in oncology using precision medicine target endocrine markers, found in malignant tumor cells producing parathyroid hormone-related protein. Breast cancers are now being treated with such therapies.
Dr. Jim Weese, vice president for Aurora Cancer Care and an advocate of Aurora Health, said many of the precision medicine therapies in the oncology space are developed for people with advanced disease. In the past, people were treated with chemotherapy and may have eventually gone to hospice or some form of palliative care.
Now, once the molecular profile is done, patients are often found to have potentially treatable diseases, and a reasonable expectation that they’re going to see a positive effect from targeted therapies.
Capital investment requires enacting effective precision medicine approach. As per Projected investment money is required is the beginning. Precision medicine trials appear to have neutral cost or a slight cost benefit.
Benefit of precision medicine to oncology care is time saving for clinicians. If an oncologist attending patient with their own devices, it may easily take two to five hours of their time. By putting together precision medicine clinics, that oncologist can now deal with many more patients and be more adept at analyzing which medicines may be appropriate.
