Personalized Medicine: It’s All About You (NAPSA)—People with cancer, heart disease, HIV and other con- ditions are living longer and enjoying better health because of what many consider a medical revolution called personalized medicine. At its center are genetic tests that identify the unique genetic profile of individual patients or their disease and allow physicians to tailor treatment to those unique characteristics. The result is easier diagnosis and treatment, better prevention, and better-targeted therapy with fewer side effects. Using the guidance from genetic tests, physicians can prescribe the right drug, at the right time, at the right dose. The effect of such personalized medicine can be felt across a range of conditions. Consider these: e A test for overabundance of the HER2 protein in breast cancer patients has permitted better targeting of therapies—and a dramatic improvement in survival rates. Atest that identifies whether a patient is especially sensitive to a drug that prevents blood clots could eliminate as many as 17,000 strokes per year and reduce health costs by as muchas $1 billion annually. Tests that read the DNA structure of the most-common form of leukemia in children have helped boost the 10-year survival rate from 4 percent in the 1960s to more than 80 percent today. 0 a- 2 Genetic tests make diagnosis and treatment as individualized as diseaseitself. Diagnostic tests that check the genetic code of an individual’s HIV virus and guide physicians in selecting the most-appropriate treatment have helped transform HIV from an almost certain death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. The real hope is for the future—and not just the distant future—with very promising genetic and molecular tests in development that could lead to earlier diagnosis and more-effective treatment for lung, ovarian, prostate and other cancers, as well as heart disease and other chronic diseases. For more information on the value of genetic tests and other types of lab tests, go to www.labresultsforlife.org.
