Broader Perspective for Personalized Therapy: Key Elements for Successful Implementation

Abstract

In the context of modern healthcare, the new generation of personalized medicine has eventually been an ultimate aspiration for several healthcare stakeholders. Personalized medicine relies on the tailoring of drug therapies to defined subset of patients based on their individual molecular signatures. It is mainly supported by the advances in -omics sciences and its relevant up to date technological platforms which enabled healthcare professionals to redefine various common and rare diseases at the molecular level. The pharmaceutical industry is continuously embracing new molecularly targeted drugs to improve pharmacotherapy and medical outcomes. In order to ensure the effectiveness of these newly developed molecularly targeted drugs, the rising field of molecular diagnostics has to be successfully implemented in clinical work flows. Although the notion of jointing drugs and diagnostics for personalizing healthcare was already present for many years, the pace of its application in the healthcare system has been comparatively slow due to several scientific and economical reasons. In this review, we attempt to generally focus on the key players which trigger the overall personalized medicine approach and we look ahead to the promises and challenges in this interesting field.