PERSONALIZED MEDICINE IN CARDIOLOGY: STATE, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Personalized medicine appeared about three decades ago. Even then many scientists, researchers, doctors were interested into it. However, only after the full opening of the human genome in 2001, personalized medicine could to give the opportunity for some pathologies (oncology, rheumatology, cardiology) to choose the most effective treatment with minimal adverse drug reactions for a specific patient. The opportunity to own genetic information gives the chance to suspect, to predict, to expect the onset of the disease. Personalized medicine is able in some cases to say exactly whether the drug can work for the patient, moving us to «treat not a disease, but the patient.» But doctors to this day when determining risk factors focus on individual characteristics of the patient, such as age, gender, body weight, co-morbidities, and based on that prescribe medications, correct dose and in case of ineffectiveness change the treatment regimen. Apparently they don’t believe in personalized medicine, afraid of it and I don’t want to associate with it, because as many think on the basis of their experience and knowledge they can decide which drug and what dose to prescribe. Also, there are a number of reasons related to privacy, security, problem of training, which will soon need to be addressed.

Keywords

• personalized medicine
• pharmacogenomics
• biomarkers
• genetic information and genetic testing