Personalised medicine is an emerging concept of treating diseases. It uses information about a person’s genes, proteins, and environment to prevent, diagnose and treat a disease. It is a multi-faceted approach to patient care that encompasses risk assessment, prevention, detection, diagnosis, management and treatment. Advancements in the field of molecular biology, genetics and pharmacogenomics form the basis for personalised medicine.

Genome wide studies are done in patients with same disease, the types of mutations related to the disease are identified, and patients with same type of mutations are grouped together. These mutations can then be used to diagnose disease in the future or to prescribe a specific treatment.

Personalised medicine is benefitting patients with many different diseases across various therapeutic areas – hematology/oncology, psychiatry, infectious diseases, cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, gastroenterology and rheumatology.

Oncology has become the poster child for personalised medicine because cancer is life-threatening, most of the drugs used in its treatment have side effects, and the treatment is expensive. Tumor profiling helps in targeting treatment based on mutations that play a role in the development of that particular tumor. Results can help diagnose a tumor more specifically or give doctors a trace of hint about how aggressive it could be. This is a game changer for oncology, considering the fact that most of the current treatments are based on the traditional “one dose fits all” approach.

Women with breast cancer serve as an example of personalised medicine. Identification of the HER2 target helps physicians prescribe a particular therapy. On the preventive front, women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene variations have up to 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer.

Personalised medicine is not only helpful to patients, but also to other stakeholders in the healthcare industry. Pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies will be benefitted by this, as a combined diagnosis-prescription approach is used in the treatment. Oncotype DX® and MammaPrint®, are diagnostic tests which use genetic information and help physicians decide the best treatment for breast cancer.

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While personalised medicine promises a great future in the medical field, the limitations include lack of knowledge on personalised medicine among physicians, and lack of sophisticated infrastructure and laws against misuse of genetic information.

According to GlobalData estimates, the global oncology companion diagnostics market valued at $260.1m in 2016, is forecasted to be worth $413.9m in 2023. The increasing demand for targeted therapies, emphasis on cost-effective healthcare, and progress in research along with improvements in the existing policies pave way for the advancement of personalised medicine.