- World Cancer Day is celebrated on February 4.
- With precision medicine, you bet on the right treatment, for the right patient and at the right time.
- Genomics and genetics play a key role in the approach because through them ideal treatments for each patient can be identified.
Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds and important advances of all kinds are constantly being developed. Among the most important is the precision medicine due to its potential impact against various types of tumors. That is why it is one of the options that generates the greatest hope among the medical community.
The magnitude of the problem is growing
Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. In developing countries, an 80% increase in incidence is estimated. Therefore, by 2030 it is expected that there will be more than 20 million cases.
In the case of Mexico, cancer is the third cause of death because it represents 12% of all deaths. Every year around 148 thousand new cases are registered (65.5 thousand in men and 82.4 thousand in women).
Due to changes in population growth and aging, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2040 the figure could reach 30 million per year. However, the trend of deaths could be significantly reduced because it is estimated that between 30% and 50% of cancers are preventable through the adoption of healthy habits, timely diagnosis and personalized treatment.
What is precision medicine?
The Dr. Luis Felipe Reyesmedical manager of Janssen Mexico, explained that, worldwide, cancer is a disease that is increasing and is considered one of the main causes of death.
“That is why Janssen joins its commitment focused on precision medicine to continue transforming the way cancer is treated. It is one of the greatest innovations in oncology and is focused on recognizing that each patient is unique and that individual differences in their genes, environments and lifestyles must be considered in the specific treatments they receive in order to be most effective and safe. ”.
This therapeutic strategy is based on knowing each patient in detail since the way of approaching cancer must be personalized and comprehensive. For this reason, research in recent years has focused on precision medicine to continue providing innovative solutions to each person.
And it is that, the genetics, the type of cancer and the environment of each patient influence the diagnosis, the effectiveness of the treatment, the prognosis and the manifestation of adverse effects.
An example of this is the enormous commitment to accompany, throughout the course of the disease, and improve the lives of patients with prostate cancer, controlling the present and defining the future.
The same goes for other types of hematological cancerAs the multiple myeloma. It is the second hematological disease in order of frequency in the world and one of the malignant conditions in which the greatest progress has been made in the last 15 years thanks to the incorporation of new advances with mechanisms of action that allow optimization and personalization of treatment with in order to improve outcomes for each patient.
The personalized precision medicine for cancer uses specific information about a person’s tumor in order to facilitate diagnosis, plan and determine the most effective treatment or give a true and accurate prognosis. The benefits of this type of innovation are to bring efficiency and value to the health care system, since it helps to avoid ineffective treatments, supporting more effective management.
Also read:
Precision medicine and biomarkers, vital against lung cancer
Shriners Hospital makes history: Introduces precision medicine and genomics service for children
The most important medical advances of 2022: From the world’s largest bacterium to the origin of the Black Death