Personalized Medicine (Precision Medicine)

Personalized medicine refers to medical treatment in which the genetic information, physical constitution, and nature of the disease of a patient are examined in detail to select the most appropriate treatment and medicine for that patient. It is also called precision medicine (precision medicine).
In conventional medicine, the same treatment is generally used for everyone with the same disease. However, it has become clear that even with the same disease, symptoms manifest themselves differently in different patients and that drugs work differently in different patients. In personalized medicine, treatment takes these individual differences into account.

Specifically, genetic testing is conducted on patients to identify the cancer-causing gene and the function of enzymes that break down drugs in the body. Based on this information, we select drugs that are expected to be effective or adjust the dosage of drugs to reduce the risk of side effects.
Progress has been particularly remarkable in cancer treatment, and in response to changes in the genes of cancer tissue Molecular targeted drugs in response to genetic changes in the cancer tissue. In addition, diagnostic tests (called companion diagnostics) have been developed to determine in advance whether a drug will be effective, enabling more appropriate treatment selection.
Pharmaceutical companies are grouping patients according to genetic changes when developing new drugs, in order to develop drugs that are more effective for specific patients. In this way, they are working to provide more patients with appropriate treatment options.
Thus, the realization of personalized medicine is expected to improve the effectiveness of treatment and reduce side effects. However, there are still some challenges, such as the cost of testing and technical issues, and efforts to promote the widespread use of this technology are ongoing.

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