Precision Medicine

What is precision medicine?

Precision medicine is an innovative medical approach that uses information about your genes, environment and lifestyle to guide healthcare decisions. This type of medicine will allow scientists and healthcare providers to more accurately predict which prevention strategies and treatments will work with which groups of people. Another name for precision medicine is personalized medicine.

Precision medicine differs from the one-size-fits-all approach to medicine, in which researchers and providers develop healthcare management strategies for the average person. The one-size-fits-all approach gives less consideration to the differences between people. It works well for some people and some conditions, but not for others.

What is the Precision Medicine Initiative?

The Precision Medicine Initiative is a program developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a number of other research centers. Their mission is to learn about how your genetics, environment and lifestyle can help define the best methods to treat and/or prevent disease.

The Precision Medicine Initiative has short-term and long-term goals:

• The short-term goals include bringing precision medicine into the area of cancer research. Scientists at the U.S. National Cancer Institute want to use an improved knowledge of the biology and genetics of cancer to develop innovative, more effective treatments.
• The long-term goals include expanding precision medicine to all areas of healthcare. The NIH has launched a study called the All of Us Research Program. Researchers want to use the data from the study to learn more about improving healthcare for all people.

What are some of the benefits of precision medicine?

Precision medicine may improve many aspects of your health and healthcare. Benefits include:

• The ability for your healthcare provider to use your genetic information as part of routine medical care.
• A better understanding of why diseases occur.
• The capability to predict which treatments will work best for you.
• An improved approach to preventing, diagnosing and treating disease.
• Better incorporation of electronic health records (EHRs), which will allow your providers to access your medical data more easily.

Where is precision medicine currently being used?

Healthcare providers are already using precision medicine across many areas of medicine, including:

• Precision oncology.
• Cancer immunotherapy.
• Pharmacogenomics.
• Rare diseases.

Precision oncology

Healthcare providers typically classify cancers by the body part or type of tissue in which they arose (for example, lung cancer, breast cancer or lymphoma). With precision medicine, they’re now identifying the molecular fingerprints of various cancers. They’re using these fingerprints to divide cancer into more precise types and subtypes.

Researchers are also finding that cancers that develop in different body parts can have a lot in common on a molecular level. Precision oncology is allowing healthcare providers to choose treatments based on the DNA signature of a person’s tumor.

Cancer immunotherapy

Your immune system can prevent some cancers from ever developing due to its natural ability to detect and destroy abnormal cells. But cancer cells can sometimes evade your immune system. Through cancer immunotherapy, scientists are outsmarting cancer cells by using your own immune system to manage and even cure cancer.

Cancer immunotherapy drugs can mimic the actions of your natural immune system molecules. These drugs include:

• Anticancer antibodies.
• Supercharged immune cells.
• Treatment vaccines that teach your immune system to attack tumors.

Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is the study of how your DNA affects your response to particular drugs. This field combines pharmacology (the study of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes) to develop safe, effective medications and doses that are tailored to variations in your specific genes.

The goal of precision medicine in pharmacogenomics is to shift away from one-size-fits-all drugs and doses. Researchers now know that many factors influence how your body reacts to different drugs. It’s not just your age, sex and body size. Precision medicine wants to focus on getting you the right drug and the right dose for your body.

Rare diseases

Researchers estimate rare genetic conditions affect 25 million to 30 million Americans. The NIH’s Undiagnosed Disease Program has studied hundreds of the most puzzling medical cases. Through their research, they’ve been able to identify and diagnose many of these cases.

The NIH has expanded its program into a network of sites across the country to study even more. It’s collaborated with several partners to speed up the development of effective treatments for these rare diseases.

What’s the difference between precision medicine and personalized medicine?

According to the U.S. National Research Council, “personalized medicine” is an older term that means the same thing as “precision medicine.”

However, the Council was concerned that people would think “personalized” meant that each person would have their own treatment. With precision medicine, the focus isn’t necessarily on you as an individual but rather on identifying which approaches will be most effective for which groups of people. Now, “precision medicine” is the more common and preferred term, but people still use the two interchangeably.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Your genes, environment and lifestyle are all factors that affect your health. The goal of precision medicine is to study these factors and act on them to protect and support your health. Your healthcare providers can develop prevention and treatment plans tailored to you, rather than using the same one-size-fits-all approach for everyone. Providers are already using precision medicine in many areas of medicine, but the possibilities are endless for how it can change the landscape of healthcare in the future.