A more precise approach to fighting cancer

If you are like me, when you get the flu you head straight to the pharmacy and grab the most powerful over-the-counter medicine you can find. But is that really the best approach? After all, your condition, symptoms, and reaction to the virus may be quite different from someone else’s, so why use the same medicine? Instead, you may benefit more from a treatment specifically designed just for you and your ailment. That’s the philosophy behind precision medicine (sometimes referred to as personalized medicine), an approach to cancer prevention and treatment that takes into account a person’s genes, environment, and lifestyle and eliminates the one-size-fits-all concept. “As you get older, you are more likely to battle diseases and ailments, like cancer, and you do not want to waste your time with trial-and-error treatments that may not work and could expose you to various side effects,” says Dr. Paul Avillach, assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School. “Precision medicine can help take out the guesswork.” The principle behind precision medicine It works like this: doctors rely on family history, lifestyle habits (like diet, exercise, and smoking), and environmental factors (such as where you grew up and where you now live) to determine if you’re more likely to get certain forms of cancer. This can help create preventive strategies like adopting a healthier diet and increasing screenings. If you have a family history of cancer, a gen...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Cancer Medical Research Source Type: blogs