Personal genomes and precision medicine

A report of the fifth annual Personal Genomes and Medical Genomics meeting, held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA, November 14-17, 2012.     

Toward precision medicine of breast cancer

In this review, we report on breast cancer’s molecular features and on how high throughput technologies are helping in understanding the dynamics of tumorigenesis and cancer progression with the aim of developing precision medicine methods. We first address the current state of the art in breast cancer therapies and challenges in order to progress towards its cure. Then, we show how the interaction of high-throughput technologies with in silico modeling has led to set up useful inferences for promising strategies of target-specific therapies with low secondary effect incidence for patients. Finally, we discuss the challenge of pharmacogenetics in the clinical practice of cancer therapy. All these issues are explored within the context of precision medicine.     

GWAS promotes precision medicine in China

正Most common diseases and genetic traits are associated with multiple genetic and environmental factors as well as consequences of their interactions(Chakravarti and Little,2003;Guttmacher et al.,2004).In recent years,genetic analyses of human diseases with quantitative traits were primarily focused on identifying common variants through genome-wide association studies(GWASs),and many novel susceptibility genes implicating specific     

Medical genetics: Towards precision medicine

正Medical genetics is defined as a branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders by applying genetics to medical care.The Human Genome Project,initiated in1990 and completed in 2004,has profoundly changed biology and is rapidly catalyzing a transformation of medical genetics and medicine in general(Collins and McKusick,2001;Green and Guyer,2011).Before the Human Genome Project,researchers     

Genomics through the lens of next-generation sequencing

A report on the 23rd annual meeting on 'The Biology of Genomes', 11-15 May 2010, Cold Spring Harbor, USA.     

Exploring the dark genome: implications for precision medicine

Mammalian Genome - The increase in the number of both patients and healthcare practitioners who grew up using the Internet and computers (so-called “digital natives”) is likely to...     

Molecular medicine through the kaleidoscope

The 30th Miami Winter Symposium: Molecular Biology in the Conquest of DiseaseMiami, FL, USA, 7–11 February 1998     

Stereotactic radiation therapy in the era of precision medicine for cancer

Unlike conventional radiation therapy, stereotactic radiation therapy(SRT) is an emerging tumor-ablative radiation technology with a high-dose delivery to targets while dramatically sparing adjacent normal tissues. The strengths of SRT involve noninvasive and short-course treatment, high rates of tumor local control with a low risk of side effects. Although the scientific concepts of radiobiology fail to be totally understood currently, SRT has shown its potential and advantages against various tumors, especially for those adjacent to less tolerable normal organs(spinal cord, optic nerve, bowels, etc.). Nowadays, the clinical efficacy of SRT has been widely confirmed in certain patients, especially for those medically inoperable, unwilling to undergo surgery, medicine ineffective with tumor progression. Moreover, SRT could be properly used as palliative treatment aiming at relieving local symptoms and pain, and eventually achieving a potential survival benefit of several months. However, the weaknesses of SRT relate to inevitable radiation-induced toxicities as well as the inaccessibility of prophylactic irradiation. In general, one flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade. The emergence and development of SRT has opened the new era of precision radiation therapy, and SRT will probably step gloriously onto the remarkable stage for precision medicine.     

Proton beam therapy for cancer in the era of precision medicine

Precision radiotherapy, which accurately delivers the dose on a tumor and confers little or no irradiation to the surrounding normal tissue and organs, results in maximum tumor control and decreases the toxicity to the utmost extent. Proton beam therapy (PBT) provides superior dose distributions and has a dosimetric advantage over photon beam therapy. Initially, the clinical practice and study of proton beam therapy focused on ocular tumor, skull base, paraspinal tumors (chondrosarcoma and chordoma), and unresectable sarcomas, which responded poorly when treated with photon radiotherapy. Then, it is widely regarded as an ideal mode for reirradiation and pediatrics due to reducing unwanted side effects by lessening the dose to normal tissue. During the past decade, the application of PBT has been rapidly increasing worldwide and gradually expanding for the treatment of various malignancies. However, to date, the role of PBT in clinical settings is still controversial, and there are considerable challenges in its application. We systematically review the latest advances of PBT and the challenges for patient treatment in the era of precision medicine.