A new trend in medicine goes by several names: Personalized Medicine, Pharmacogenomics, Pharmacogenetics, and more. The names are often given similar yet different meanings depending on who you ask. It is probably most accurate to say that the broad concept of Personalized Medicine includes several concepts - among them Pharmacogenomics appears to be the largest and most significant
Pharmacogenomics combines the words pharmaceuticals and genomics to describe medicine based on the link between genetic patterns and the way an individual will metabolize types of drugs, as well as to precise types of diseases. I recall reading that there are now thought to be 5 different types of asthma with genetic markers for each. New developments in this field are made frequently.
Lung cancer patients, who might receive a prescription for standard chemotherapy drugs or an alternative drug, can be tested for a mutation of gene EGFr to determine whether they should be presribed Iressa or receive standard chemotherapy if they do not have the mutation. This and similar recent research was recently reported on by Marilyn Chase for Bloomberg.
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