We provide information and tools to empower the patient to select the best therapy for each individual.
Biomarkers
Precision or personalized medicine relies on measurables, call biomarkers. Some of the most capable biomarkers are cancer related. They are very impactful for the patient and drug developers, but still underutilized (about 20% of total and 35% of new clinical trials have biomarkers). These measurements allow scientists to identify groups of patients that show common responses to therapy. The correlation of biomarkers to effectiveness of therapy is phenomenological, that is to say based on experience of a sufficient number of patients.
This figure illustrates the use of biomarkers as a Companion diagnostic to identify a subpopulation (orange) of patients. Comprehensive use of biomarkers for all possible treatments (or Complementary diagnostics, see text) can identify patients for whom specific treatment options (indicated as colored pills) are appropriate. We call this personalized medicine, but it could also be called “cohort medicine”. The cohort is connected through the precision of biomarkers that effectively group patients to allow predicting medical response.
