Personalized Medicine
n a way, personalized medicine has been around for as long as people have been practicing medicine. In fact, Hippocrates, Greek physician and so-called "Father of Western Medicine" who practiced some 2,500 years ago, was himself a proponent of personalized medicine (Sykiotis et al., 2005). For example, in one of his over 70 works of ideas and teachings, Hippocrates wrote about the individuality of disease and the necessity of giving "different [drugs] to different patients, for the sweet ones do not benefit everyone, nor do the astringent ones, nor are all the patients able to drink the same things."
Whereas Hippocrates evaluated factors like a person's "constitution," age, and "physique," as well as the time of year, to aid his decision …show more content…
Physicians prescribe Perception only to women with these types of tumors. Herceptin acts by binding to the Her2 receptors and interfering with their out-of-control cell signaling; studies have shown that the drug is a much more effective treatment in women with Her2-positive tumors than in women with Her2-negative tumors. Moreover, not only does Herceptin not work as well against cancer cells with normal levels of Her2 expression, but it can sometimes do more harm than good. That is because in all patients, no matter what their Her2 new status, Herceptin increases the risk of heart dysfunction. In fact, the risk is worrisome enough that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulatory agency ultimately responsible for deciding which drugs can be prescribed and under what circumstances, has stated that physicians should prescribe Herceptin only to those women who would likely truly benefit—in other words, only those women who test positive for Her2/neu. Otherwise, the risk of heart failure is just too great to justify use of this drug. Thus, women with advanced breast cancer are routinely tested for Her2/neu over expression before any decisions are made about whether to prescribe Herceptin versus some other drug, because as good as Herceptin might be, to use Hippocrates' words, "the sweet ones do not benefit
Whereas Hippocrates evaluated factors like a person's "constitution," age, and "physique," as well as the time of year, to aid his decision …show more content…
Physicians prescribe Perception only to women with these types of tumors. Herceptin acts by binding to the Her2 receptors and interfering with their out-of-control cell signaling; studies have shown that the drug is a much more effective treatment in women with Her2-positive tumors than in women with Her2-negative tumors. Moreover, not only does Herceptin not work as well against cancer cells with normal levels of Her2 expression, but it can sometimes do more harm than good. That is because in all patients, no matter what their Her2 new status, Herceptin increases the risk of heart dysfunction. In fact, the risk is worrisome enough that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulatory agency ultimately responsible for deciding which drugs can be prescribed and under what circumstances, has stated that physicians should prescribe Herceptin only to those women who would likely truly benefit—in other words, only those women who test positive for Her2/neu. Otherwise, the risk of heart failure is just too great to justify use of this drug. Thus, women with advanced breast cancer are routinely tested for Her2/neu over expression before any decisions are made about whether to prescribe Herceptin versus some other drug, because as good as Herceptin might be, to use Hippocrates' words, "the sweet ones do not benefit