This article will educate healthcare professionals, researchers, and patients about the transformative potential of functional precision medicine and its associated tools—such as precision medicine tests, centers, and companion diagnostics—in improving patient outcomes and shaping the future of healthcare.
Functional precision medicine is a paradigm-shifting approach that integrates functional biology with precision tools to deliver personalized care. Functional precision medicine, precision medicine tests, and advancements in diagnostics are revolutionizing patient outcomes in modern medicine.
The Foundation of Functional Precision Medicine
At its core, precision medicine is designed to match patients with treatment or drugs that are most likely to have a positive outcome.
For cancer patients, in particular, precision medicine uses genomics to determine the most precise form of treatment or medicine to target primary tumor cells.
Today, functional precision medicine looks at live tumors in individuals with cancer to determine which type of therapy would be best. This is achieved with static features like genomic analysis of mutations or vulnerabilities within a tumor that can be targeted with certain drugs.
While the number of people who can benefit from this type of precision might be small, being able to provide relief and individualized treatment outcomes and oncology for a small percentage of patients is a statistically important opportunity for growth.
Benefits of Functional Precision Medicine
Functional precision medicine offers many benefits compared to traditional medicine.
- Firstly, it can help to complement traditional or Western medicine, offering a powerful tool that determines who might benefit from certain drugs and treatment options and who might not.
- Secondly, it offers a more targeted form of treatment on an individual basis rather than a large group. With traditional medicine, the drug or therapy is created for a large group of people, but given this broad applicability, it doesn't work well for a statistically significant percentage of people. With a functional precision medicine test, professionals can determine whether a medicine is likely to work on an individual basis, which means that anything that is prescribed will be more effective against things like tumors than your average therapy.
- Thirdly, the precise recommendations that professionals and researchers can provide to their patients mean fewer serious side effects. All medications come with risks, but a functional precision test will determine whether you are at risk for serious side effects. It will also provide a medication that is targeted to specific tumors rather than your whole body. And finally, it reduces the number of medications you likely have to take, and that specificity reduces your odds of health complications and unwanted side effects.
- Finally, with work at a functional precision center, practitioners and patients alike have the opportunity to optimize their treatment options and make more informed decisions about medication.
All of this works to advance the level of care that's offered to individuals.
Advancing Care Through Precision Medicine Centers
Functional precision medicine provides a personalized approach for oncology in particular but has applicability for neurological conditions as well. This is a process that uses genomics-based precision medicine to dictate the type of therapies and treatments that are best for individual patients. These genomic biomarkers help guide decisions for treatment options in small cases, though not necessarily every case.
A functional precision medicine center might work with the following:
- Patient enrollment
- Sample collection
- Testing
- Tumor profiling
- Decision-making for treatment options
Functional precision medicine combines things like ex vivo drug sensitivity testing with genomic profiling to help identify which treatment options are best for individual patients and which patients are most likely to experience the more serious side effects associated with individual treatment options.
Why consider functional precision medicine?
A strategy of functional precision medicine is one that is centered on precision medicine test options as well as precision medicine companion diagnostic options. The precision medicine center locations where all of this takes place act as hubs of innovation and expertise, bringing together cutting-edge tools like companion diagnostics and comprehensive patient profiling under one roof.
The information that is taken from a functional precision medicine approach can provide additional information about vulnerabilities in specific tumors for individual patients. A more comprehensive understanding of these tumor vulnerabilities can provide an avenue for improving treatment outcomes for the same patients.
Role of Precision Medicine Companion Diagnostics
The role of precision medicine companion diagnostic tools is to help make sure that all patients are able to receive the most effective and the safest treatment options possible.
How does this work?
- As patients participate in diagnostic work at a precision medicine center, the companion Diagnostics helps to identify whether they are likely to benefit from a specific type of treatment.
- This type of companion diagnostic work can also help identify those patients who might be at a higher risk of serious side effects from the same type of treatment versus those who are only at risk for mild side effects.
- The right type of companion diagnostic option can monitor individual responses to that treatment and then make adjustments to improve the efficacy and the safety of the treatment.
- Moreover, precision medicine companion diagnostic services can advance clinical research by accelerating the approval of certain medications, enhancing the efficacy of treatment options, and reducing the number of adverse side effects.
Who does this help?
A precision medicine test and companion diagnostic service can help everyone.
Patients
Patients can benefit from undergoing a precision medicine test that could reveal the potential for new, modern treatments, especially in oncology, that could prove helpful. These tests help reduce the risk associated with innovative treatments by determining whether individual patients are likely to benefit.
Secondarily, it helps to expose the potential risks associated with novel treatments so patients have the opportunity to see whether they would be at a higher risk for some of the more serious side effects from certain treatments and make more informed decisions as to whether or not they want to try that treatment given that information.
Researchers
Researchers benefit from working with precision medicine centers in that they can provide information about potential risks, particularly more serious side effects, and work to reduce those side effects while getting new treatments approved. With functional drug sensitivity testing, as well as things like molecular tumor profiling for oncology, researchers can more quickly identify potential vulnerabilities and work to improve outcomes.
Professionals
Professionals are able to offer more actionable information and education to their patients long before utilizing different treatment options. A healthcare professional can utilize functional precision medicine tests and companion diagnostics to determine which of their patients are most likely to benefit from a new form of treatment and, from there, offer that information to their patients in a timely fashion.
Similarly, professionals can now offer more informed information about the type of risk associated with given treatments on an individualized level.
Summing Up
Overall, these tools help determine the most effective therapies, particularly in oncology, by pairing diagnostic insights with targeted treatments.
There is great transformative potential for functional precision medicine in addressing the limitations of traditional medical approaches. Patients, researchers, and healthcare professionals should explore the possibilities of functional precision medicine to achieve optimal care.
