Evolution of Personalized Medicine and Positive Outcomes

Personalized medicine has changed considerably following rapid developments in the technology, both in terms of things that can be addressed by genetic and genomic information, as well as sophisticated methods that have been devised to be able to use this information, according to Edmund Pezalla, MD, MPH.

Particularly in oncology, Pezalla thinks drug development has been the primary driver for the use of personalized medicine—drugs that are targeted for specific markers expressed on particular tumor types. “That has been extremely helpful in getting patients the right therapies. The sophistication has vastly improved and that has definitely helped.”

The early phase of personalized medicine, he explained, was used to test drug metabolism and other things that did not yield improved patient outcomes or lead to better treatment decisions. Pezalla believes this scenario has now changed, both in oncology and other therapeutic areas such as, rheumatoid arthritis.