| dc.description.abstract | There are three different ways in which personalized medicine will likely be used by clinicians and patients; First, the prediction of the way a patient responds to a certain drug. Therefore patients might no longer be treated in a trial-and-error manner, but in an evidence based way by using personal genomes as a tool for outcome predictions. Second, the prediction of the risk that a person has to develop disease, possibly leading to prevention. Finally, the determination of the carrier status of parents and therefore the chance of offspring to develop disease. This will influence prenatal (and possibly pre-pregnancy) screening. All these three topics will be discussed in this thesis. I will start with a few examples of how personalized medicine is already being used inside and outside the clinic. Then, current research on drug response will be discussed. Thereafter the research on predictions on disease risk and carrier status are presented. In the final chapter several issues will be discussed, both practical and ethical, that researchers and clinicians will come across when personalized medicine is implemented into clinical practice. | |
