Cancer vaccines are an emerging personalised treatment for cancer. Using the same mRNA technology as COVID vaccines, they stimulate the immune system to destroy cancer cells.
RNA carries copies of genetic information from DNA.
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Clinical trials are used to establish that medicines work. But these don’t take into account the genetic differences between us that can mean very different outcomes for different patients.
Illustration of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia,
showing lymphoblasts in blood.
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People with the same condition can respond differently to the same treatment. This is why personalised treatment is so important in all fields of medicine, including psychology.
If you were destined for dementia in your 60s, but there was nothing you could do about it, would you want to know?
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) affects around 3,000 people in Australia and 70,000 worldwide. It’s an inherited disease caused by a mutation in a single gene called CFTR.
Personalised medicine allows treatment to be tailored to a patient’s unique genetic makeup.
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The rise of personalised medicine, which is mainly based on genetic testing, needs adequate regulation so privacy rights aren’t breached. That’s only one of several issues that must be considered.