In general, doctors begin providing personalized health care after a
patient has been diagnosed with a particular disease, by conducting
sophisticated tests that provide information on the
presence or absence of specific biological characteristics that are
likely to influence how well the patient will respond to specific
treatment options. These characteristics are often genes, but they may also be proteins or other
biomarkers.
The doctor uses the results of the test(s) to help avoid ineffective treatment regimens in favor of therapies that are proven to work for patients with the characteristics identified by the tests.
You
can use the links provided to explore the personalized medicine tests
and therapies that are available for a variety of diseases.