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A new initiative is aiming to make personalised medicine available to all European patients. The initiative is led by Prof Mark Lawler, Chair in Translational Cancer Genomics at the Queen’s University Belfast Centre of Cancer Research and Cell Biology (CCRCB).
Known as the Roadmap for Personalised Medicine in Europe, the initiative is a collaboration involving patients, doctors and scientists, as well as the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Prof Lawler said: “In many diseases, we have tended to use a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and give every patient the same treatment, yet a significant proportion of patients don’t respond to this treatment
and can develop serious side-effects.
“Understanding the genetics of the disease, say for example, bowel cancer, has made us realise that all bowel cancers are not the same and therefore a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach cannot work for all patients. New technologies allow us to understand the type of disease based on the genetic make-up and therefore this information lets us personalise the treatment for each of those bowel cancer patients.
“Getting the right treatment to the right patient at the right time can greatly improve our chances in the fight against deadly diseases such as cancer.
“This personalised medicine approach holds great promise and has already shown benefit in many diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and respiratory disease. However, the real challenge is how to make sure that it becomes part of the standard of care for Europe’s citizens.”
Suggestions in a new blueprint include the development of a European Translational Research Platform to ensure the efficient conversion of exciting research discoveries into new diagnostics and therapies, and the creation of a new regulatory framework that ensures a more rapid take-up of personalised medicine for the benefit of patients.
Lawler et al, Roadmap for Personalised Medicine in Europe, 2014