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Author Interviews, Laboratories, Personalized Medicine / 08.10.2025

Advantages of Convenient Home Blood Tests

The evolution of health monitoring technologies has heralded a new era wherein individuals can actively participate in their health management with unprecedented ease. Home blood tests are at the forefront of this transition, revolutionizing how we approach personal health care. They offer a myriad of benefits ranging from convenience to early detection of potential health issues. In this article, we will delve into the multifaceted advantages of using home blood testing kits and uncover why they are becoming indispensable tools for maintaining health. Keep reading to learn how these innovative solutions can empower you and possibly transform your approach to health management.

Understanding the Advantages of Home Blood Tests in Personal Health Management

The integration of home blood tests into personal health management represents a significant leap forward in patient empowerment and health awareness. These tests allow individuals to track vital health markers without the need to visit medical facilities, providing a detailed insight into one's well-being from the comfort of their home. With the help of these kits, patients can monitor everything from cholesterol levels to blood glucose, giving them valuable data to make informed health decisions. The convenience of home blood tests has made regular monitoring more accessible for people with mobility challenges or those leading busy lifestyles. In an age where time is a precious commodity, the ability to conduct a blood test without scheduling an appointment or waiting in line is a considerable advantage. Personal health management becomes less of a chore and more of a seamless part of everyday life. Lastly, home blood tests serve as a gateway to personalized medicine, where treatments and health strategies can be tailored to the unique needs of an individual. When people have direct access to their health information, discussions with physicians can be more informed and productive, leading to customized health interventions and a better partnership in managing one's health journey. (more…)
Heart Disease, Personalized Medicine / 27.03.2025

Sponsored post How we treat heart disease remains a major health concern in today's fast-pace world. More healthcare professionals are turning to personalized, prevention-based care as medical tools improve and our understanding of cardiovascular risk grows. An example of that change is interventional cardiologist Dr. Robert Marshall, who is known for his clinical expertise but also for his patient-centered approach. Building a Strong Foundation Dr. Marshall has spent years refining his approach to cardiology, combining traditional medical training with deep knowledge in nutrition. This background gives him a unique, holistic perspective when it comes to heart health. But what truly makes his care stand out is how he adapts his knowledge to fit the individual needs of each patient. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Leukemia, Personalized Medicine / 12.11.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Ong Sin Tiong Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Signature Research Programme Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore Dr Yu Mengge Research Fellow, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Signature Research Programme Duke-NUS Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The background of this study is rooted in the observation that certain genetic variations among East Asian populations, notably the BIM deletion polymorphism (BDP), impact treatment outcomes in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Patients with the BDP show resistance to conventional treatments, specifically tyrosine kinase inhibitors like imatinib. This resistance stems from the variant's role in promoting cancer cell survival, which leads to more aggressive disease progression. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Personalized Medicine / 27.10.2024

  Advanced screening techniques are changing healthcare by making it easier to find and treat diseases earlier. These new technologies are helping doctors and researchers improve the way they diagnose these diseases and create better treatments. A key area where these techniques are making a big impact is in antibody discovery. It helps scientists find important proteins that can be used to fight diseases like cancer and autoimmune disorders. In this article, we’ll look at how advanced screening techniques are changing healthcare, how they help with antibody discovery, and what the future might hold for these technologies. (more…)
Biomarkers, Personalized Medicine / 17.10.2024

  biomarkers-personalized-medicine.png   Key Takeaways
  • Biomarkers are measurable biological indicators that can help in diagnosing diseases, predicting disease progression, and guiding treatment decisions.
  • They are essential for personalized medicine, allowing treatments to be tailored specifically to an individual's biological profile.
  • Targeted therapies and early detection of diseases, especially in cancer treatment, have greatly benefited from biomarker research.
  • Tools like Western blotting and ELISA are commonly used to detect and analyze biomarkers, contributing to more precise medical decisions.
  • While challenges exist, including cost and ethical concerns, biomarkers are paving the way for more accurate and effective healthcare.
(more…)
Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Pain Research, Personalized Medicine / 10.05.2024

On your path to recovery after an injury, you’ll find that medical science keeps evolving. New treatments and tech are not just healing; they’re changing the game of how we bounce back. Guided by fresh insights into technology, we make sure your way back is as effective as it is straightforward. Photo by cottonbro studio Healing Faster: Breakthroughs in Recovery from Personal InjuriesUnderstanding the Latest Diagnostic Tools Enhancing Personal Injury Recovery In the realm of personal injury recovery, precision in diagnosis is key. Advanced imaging techniques such as High-definition fiber tractography (HDFT) now allow for a superior visualization of neural pathways. Medical pros can pinpoint where you’re hurt with such precision, crafting a rehab plan that fits just right. Thanks to biomarker technology, figuring out how long recovery will take has gotten a whole lot smarter. Imagine doctors using clues from your body’s own building blocks—genes and proteins—to create a recovery plan that’s all about you. It means less wondering, “Will this work?” and more knowing it will help stitch things back together quickly. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Personalized Medicine / 11.04.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Johan Sundström, MD, PhD Professor of Epidemiology at Uppsala University Professorial Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health Cardiologist at Uppsala University Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: High blood pressure, hypertension, is a growing global health challenge. Over the last 30 years, the number of people with hypertension has doubled, and it is estimated that around a third of adults aged 30-79 have the condition - a total of 1.28 billion people worldwide. Untreated hypertension can lead to kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke, accounting for 11.3 million deaths in 2021 alone. A small minority get their blood pressure under control with drug therapy, and some studies indicate that as little as half are taking their blood pressure medications as intended. Is this because the drugs' effectiveness and side effects differ between different individuals? If so, there would be a substantial risk that patients will not get their optimal medication on the first try, with poor blood pressure lowering and unnecessary side effects as a result. In a new clinical trial in Sweden, it was studied whether there is an optimal blood pressure medication for each person, and thus a potential for personalized blood pressure treatment. In the study, 280 people with high blood pressure tried out four different blood pressure drugs on several different occasions over a total of one year. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Genetic Research, JAMA, Personalized Medicine, Vanderbilt / 18.03.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jonathan Mosley, MD, PhD Associate Professor Division of Clinical Pharmacology Departments of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Informatics Vanderbilt University Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prostate cancer is an important source of morbidity and mortality among men. Earlier detection of disease is essential to reduce these adverse outcomes. Prostate cancer is heritable, and many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with disease risk have been identified. Thus, there is considerable interest in using tools such as polygenic risk scores, which measure the burden of genetic risk variants an individual carries, to identify men at elevated risk of disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Personalized Medicine / 09.05.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kelly de Ligt, PhD Postdoctoral researcher | Project lead ‘PRO implementation in clinical care’ Psycho Social Research and Epidemiology (PSOE) Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and survivorship has become increasingly important within breast cancer care, as the majority of women survives at least 10 years after breast cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer survivors may experience multiple co-existing symptoms that affect their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Previous studies have mainly studied these symptoms as separate, independent items. However in reality, survivors usually experience multiple symptoms that can add up. We therefore studied the overall symptom burden in breast cancer survivors and tried to identify patterns in this. We believe this may be more relevant, as currently the needs of breast cancer survivors are not fully met and there is a growing demand for personalized follow-up care. We selected breast cancer survivors from the Netherlands Cancer Registry, which contains comprehensive information about diagnosis and treatment for all cancer patients in the Netherlands. Women who had been surgically treated with or without adjuvant treatment for breast cancer stages I to III and between one and five years after diagnosis were invited to participate in our survey. A total of 404 participating survivors were questioned about their experienced burden for fatigue, nausea, pain, shortness of breath, insomnia, appetite, constipation, diarrhoea, as well as emotional and cognitive symptoms  (more…)
Author Interviews, Neurological Disorders, Personalized Medicine / 19.06.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: https://polyneuron.com/Pascal Hänggi, PhD Chief Scientific Officer Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Anti-MAG neuropathy is a rare form of acquired demyelinating neuropathy. The disease onset normally presents after the age of 50 years and is 2.7 times more frequent in men than in women, with a prevalence of about 1 in 100,000. It is caused by the production of monoclonal anti-MAG IgM antibodies that recognize the HNK-1 epitope. The myelin-associated glycoprotein MAG is a mediator for the formation and maintenance of the myelin sheaths. There is strong evidence that the binding and deposition of anti-MAG IgM autoantibodies on myelin sheath is responsible for the demyelination, which clinically manifests itself as a peripheral neuropathy affecting primarily sensory nerves. However, the causes and the exact mechanisms behind the expansion of anti-MAG IgM producing B-cell and plasma cell clones are not fully understood. Most off-label treatments aim to reduce pathogenic autoantibody titers by depleting  autoantibody-producing B cell clones which interfere with antibody-effector mechanisms, or physically remove autoantibodies from the circulation. Most frequently, the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab is used to treat anti-MAG neuropathy patients. However, all of these treatment options often lack of selectivity, efficiency, or can induce severe adverse effects in some patients. Polyneuron has designed PN-1007 to highly selectively target the IgM autoantibodies that cause anti-MAG neuropathy. PN-1007 is a glycopolymer that mimics the natural HNK-1 carbohydrate epitope found on myelin of peripheral nerves and binds to the circulating disease-causing antibodies. By eliminating these pathogenic antibodies, PN-1007 may protect the integrity of the neuronal myelin sheaths of anti-MAG neuropathy patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine / 27.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fumihiko Urano, MD, PhD Samuel E. Schechter Professor of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Lipid Research Washington University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Wolfram syndrome is a rare monogenic disease characterized by insulin-dependent diabetes, retinal degeneration, and neurodegeneration. Using gene editing by CRISPR-Cas9, in combination with patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), we were able to make normal insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells by correcting Wolfram Syndrome gene mutation. We could cure diabetes in cells and mice. Because we can create any types of tissues from iPSCs, our next step would be to replicate this success for other medical problems, including retinal regeneration and neurodegeneration. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease, Pediatrics, Personalized Medicine / 26.09.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: James P. Franciosi, MD Chief of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Nemours Children's Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic inflammation of the esophagus that is driven by eosinophils. A common class of medications used for this condition are called Proton Pump Inhibitors, or PPIs, which block the production of gastric acid in the stomach. Currently only 30 to 60 percent of children with EoE respond well when treated with PPIs. We hypothesized that genetic variants in the genes for CYP2C19 and STAT6 could plausibly be associated with response to PPI therapy for EoE. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine / 02.07.2019

Dr. Winegarden
Dr. Winegarden

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Medical Economics and Innovation
Pacific Research Institute

MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this poll? Would you tell us a little about the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation? 

Response: Recent press reports have focused on how extensive innovative gene therapies can be.  PRI was interested in learning where Americans stand on these cures of the future, and commission a new national opinion survey to find out.

The Center for Medical Economics and Innovation is a new center launched by PRI this spring to research and advance policies showing how a thriving biomedical and pharmaceutical sector benefits both patients and economic growth. Medical innovation is an important driver of economic growth, responsible for over $1.3 trillion in economic activity each year. As the Milken Institute has found, every job in the biomedical sphere supports another 3.3 jobs elsewhere in the economy.

Among the activities of the Center – which can be accessed at www.medecon.org – are providing free-market analysis to evaluate current policy proposals, producing easy-to-understand data and analysis on current trends in medical science, breaking down complex issues like pharmaceutical and biomedical pricing structures, and demonstrating the benefits that market-based reforms can offer patients and the U.S. health care system.  (more…)

Author Interviews, Personalized Medicine, Weight Research / 19.02.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ruth Loos, PhD The Charles Bronfman Professor in Personalized Medicine Director, Genetics of Obesity and Related Traits Program Co-Director, Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, NY     MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Which type of body fat distribution carries greater risk of diabetes or other obesity-related health disorders? Response: Obesity broadly consists of two component; [1] there is overall body size (assessed using BMI) and [2] there is fat distribution (assessed using WHR). Both are “heritable”, which mean that they are in part determined by our genome (and the other part is determined by our lifestyle). Over the past 15 years, geneticists have used an approach to screen the whole genome of thousands of people to identify genetic variations that differ between e.g. obese people vs non-obese people. We have applied this approach to both components of obesity and have found so far that genes for “overall body size” seem to act in the brain, likely controlling hunger, satiety, reward, etc., whereas the genes that determine where in the body the excess fat will be stored when you gain weight (i.e. fat distribution) seem to act more “locally” at the fat cell level itself, determining the storage and release of fat.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Inflammation, Kidney Disease, Personalized Medicine / 31.07.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael P. Madaio, MD Sydenstricker Professor and Chairman Department of Medicine Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Glomerulonephritis is a inflammatory disease of the kidney.  Glomeruli are the filtering units in the kidney. This is most often immunologically mediated and are autoimmune. Most therapies are directed at inhibiting the Immune/autoimmune process (immunotherapy) systemically. (more…)
Author Interviews, Neurological Disorders, Neurology, Personalized Medicine, Radiology, Surgical Research / 13.07.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yasser Iturria-Medina, PhD Primary Investigator, Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics & Mental Health Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery Faculty of Medicine McGill University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There are millions of patients following therapeutic interventions that will not benefit them. In this study, we aimed to illustrate that it is possible to identify the most beneficial intervention for each patient, in correspondence with the principles of the personalized medicine (PM). Our results show that using multimodal imaging and computational models it is possible to predict individualized therapeutic needs. The predictions are in correspondence with the individual molecular properties, which validate our findings and the used computational techniques. The results highly also the imprecision of the traditional clinical evaluations and categories for understanding the individual therapeutic needs, evidencing the positive impact that would have to use multimodal data and data-driven techniques in the clinic, in addition to the medical doctor's criterion/evaluations.   (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Personalized Medicine, University of Pennsylvania / 15.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David A. Wolk, MD Associate Professor Department of Neurology Co-Director, Penn Memory Center Associate Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center University of Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a state when individuals have mild memory problems, but not enough to impact day-to-day function.  Many patients with MCI are on the trajectory to developing Alzheimer’s Disease dementia, but about half will not and remain stable.  As such, patients with MCI are often uncertain about the likelihood they should expect to decline in the future which obviously may be associated with considerable anxiety and this may delay opportunities for them to plan for the future or begin therapeutic interventions. This study examined the degree to which amyloid PET, which detects the amyloid pathology of Alzheimer’s Disease, a measure of shrinkage of the hippocampus with MRI, and cognitive measures predicted development of dementia over 3 years.  We found that each of these measures enhances prediction of whether an individual will or will not develop dementia in the future.  If all of these measures are positive, one has a very high risk of progression whereas if amyloid PET and the MRI measurement are normal, there is very little risk of progression. (more…)
Author Interviews, Geriatrics, Heart Disease, Personalized Medicine, UCLA / 12.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD Principal Substudy Investigator, PRESET Registry Subgroup Analysis, Elderly Patients Associate Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research David Geffen School of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  Response: The mapping of the Human Genome 14 years ago ushered in a new era of precision medicine. Many people are familiar with advances in oncology using precision medicine, but recently, new developments in precision medicine in cardiology have allowed us to develop a tool to differentiate patients likely to have obstructive coronary artery (CAD) from those who have non-cardiac causes of their symptoms. Diagnosing CAD in the elderly is challenging. Aging individuals often present with atypical symptoms of CAD which can complicate the evaluation process. The typical diagnostic pathway for possible CAD often starts with less invasive testing and progresses to invasive testing, especially in older patients. Invasive procedures pose greater risk in the elderly population than they do in younger patients because of the higher risk of side effects, including bleeding, vascular complications and kidney injury. Elderly adults evaluated for CAD have a higher pretest probability of CAD and are also at higher risk of experiencing procedure-related complications during their evaluation.[i],[ii] It is also important to note that elderly patients are often underrepresented in clinical trials and other types of comparative effectiveness research.[iii],[iv] For example, the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk Algorithm is only formally approved to be used in individuals up to the age of 75, despite the fact that individuals exceeding this threshold in age experience higher rates of adverse cardiovascular events.[v] All of this means that the elderly population may have the most to gain from timely and accurate determination of their currently likelihood of obstructive CAD. This precision medicine tool, the age, sex and gene expression score (ASGES), and its clinical utility in the elderly population is the focus of this study. It was based on patient data from the PRESET Registry, a prospective, multicenter, observational study enrolling stable, symptomatic outpatients from 21 U.S. primary care practices from August 2012 to August 2014. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Heart Disease, JAMA, Personalized Medicine / 21.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. MalikDr. Shaista Malik MD PhD MPH Director of Samueli Center For Integrative Medicine Assistant Professor, School of Medicine University of California, Irvine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Having diabetes has been considered to be a risk equivalent to already had a myocardial infarction for predicting future cardiovascular events.  We were interested in testing whether further risk stratification in those with diabetes and metabolic syndrome, using coronary artery calcium (CAC), would result in improved prediction of cardiovascular events. We found that CAC score was associated with incident coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease more than a decade after the scoring was performed.  We also found that even after we controlled for the duration of diabetes (of 10 years or more), insulin use, or hemoglobin A1c level, coronary artery calcium remained a predictor of cardiovascular events. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, JAMA, Personalized Medicine / 17.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ingrid S. van Maurik, MSc Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Amsterdam Neuroscience VU University Medical Center Amsterdam, the Netherlands MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: CSF and MRI biomarkers are increasingly used in clinical practice, but their diagnostic and prognostic value is not perfect. Furthermore, criteria do not specify how to deal with conflicting or borderline results, or how to take patient characteristics into account. Therefore, optimal use of these biomarkers in clinical practice remains challenging. As part of the ABIDE project, we constructed biomarker-based prognostic models (CSF, MRI and combined) that enable prediction of future Alzheimer’s disease, or any type of dementia, in individual patients with mild cognitive impairment. When using these models, any value can be entered for the variables, resulting in personalized probabilities with confidence intervals. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine / 15.05.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: 3D SignaturesJason Flowerday, CEO Director of 3D Signatures  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for 3D Signatures? Response: 3D Signatures, and its clinical lab tests, which incorporate its proprietary TeloViewTM software analytics, is the culmination of over 20 years of ground-breaking research conducted by Dr. Sabine Mai and her colleagues. It is the only technology in the world that quantifies genomic instability, which is the hallmark of cancer and other proliferative diseases at the whole-cell level. By measuring the degree of genomic instability from different tissues, TeloViewTM has produced clinically actionable distinctions in the stage of disease, rate of progression of disease, drug efficacy, and drug toxicity. The technology is well developed and supported by 22 clinical studies on over 2,000 patients on 13 different cancers including Alzheimer’s disease. The results have been exceptional and represent a universal biomarker platform across all disease areas that the company has investigated to date. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, NEJM, Ophthalmology, Personalized Medicine / 20.04.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John M. Lachin, Sc.D. Research Professor of Biostatistics and of Epidemiology, and of Statistics The George Washington University Biostatistics Center and David Matthew Nathan, M.D. Professor of Medicine, Diabetes Unit Massachusetts General Hospital  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Traditional guidelines for screening for retinopathy, based on indirect evidence, call for annual examinations. The automatic annual screening for retinopathy, without considering potential risk factors for progression,  appears excessive based on the slow rate of progression through sub-clinical states of retinopathy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Chemotherapy, Personalized Medicine / 24.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eran Andrechek, PhD Eran Andrechek, PhD Associate Professor Department of Physiology Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Associate Professor Department of Physiology Michigan State University East Lansing, MI  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Of the various types of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer (lacking estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2) has the worst outcome and is largely limited to chemotherapy for treatment.  Other types can be treated with personalized medicine, resulting in better outcome.  For instance, a HER2+ve breast cancer can be treated with Herceptin, which targets HER2 itself.  The fact that triple negative breast cancer lacks these sort of targeted treatments presents a clear need in breast cancer therapy. The goal of this study was to bring together our computational work using large databases from breast cancer with research into therapeutic options.  Essentially we wanted to ask if we could use patterns in what genes were being expressed to predict optimal therapy for triple negative breast cancer.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine, Prostate Cancer / 17.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. John L. Gore, MD Associate Professor Adjunct Associate Professor-Surgery Department of Urology University of Washington MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The rationale for our study derives from the uncertainty that both patients and clinicians confront when trying to make decisions about adjuvant therapy for prostate cancers found to have aggressive pathologic features at the time of radical prostatectomy. There is level 1 evidence in support of adjuvant radiation therapy in this setting, but several factors restrain providers from recommending adjuvant radiation. We found that interjecting a genomic test that predicts the risk of clinical metastases 5 years after surgery impacts the treatment recommended and helps men and clinicians feel more confident in the decision they are making or recommending. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Columbia, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine / 23.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kai Wang Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, University of Southern California Institute for Genomic Medicine, Columbia University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cancer is a genetic disease caused by a small number of “driver mutations” in the cancer genome that drive disease initiation and progression. To understand such mechanism, there are increasing community efforts in interrogating cancer genomes, transcriptomes and proteomes by high-throughput technologies, generating huge amounts of data. For example, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project has already made public 2.5 petabytes of data describing tumor and normal tissues from more than 11,000 patients. We were interested in using such publicly available genomics data to predict cancer driver genes/variants for individual patients, and design an "electronic brain” called iCAGES that learns from such information to provide personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment. iCAGES is composed of three consecutive layers, to infer driver variants, driver genes and drug treatment, respectively. Unlike most other existing tools that infer driver genes from a cohort of patients with similar cancer, iCAGES attempts to predict drivers for individual patient based on his/her genomic profile. What we have found is that iCAGES outperforms other tools in identifying driver variants and driver genes for individual patients. More importantly, a retrospective analysis on TCGA data shows that iCAGES predicts whether patients respond to drug treatment and predicts long-term survival. For example, we analyzed two groups of patients and found that using iCAGES recommend drugs can increase patients’ survival probability by 66%. These results suggest that whole-genome information, together with transcriptome and proteome information, may benefit patients in getting optimal and precise treatment. (more…)
Author Interviews, Personalized Medicine, Technology / 16.11.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kezheng Chen Lab of Functional and Biomedical Nanomaterials College of Materials Science and Engineering Qingdao University of Science and Technology Qingdao China MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: From a view point of practical applications, superparamagnetism is usually highly desirable, because it can prevent the magnetic particles from irreversible aggregation and ensure an excellent dispersity once the applied magnetic field is removed. Up to now, the largest size of reported superparamagnetic clusters is around several hundreds of nanometers, which are composed of numerous nanocrystals, and hence exhibiting polycrystalline nature. In this sense, how to realize well pronounced superparamagnetism in large-size single crystals is of great interest to the general public. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Lung Cancer, Personalized Medicine, University of Pennsylvania / 13.09.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erica L. Carpenter, MBA, PhD Research Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine Director, Circulating Tumor Material Laboratory Division of Hematology/Oncology Abramson Cancer Center Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The advent of precision medicine practices for cancer patients, including the use of drugs that target specific tumor mutations, has necessitated improved diagnostics with real-time molecular monitoring of patients' tumor burden. While biopsy material, obtained surgically or through fine needle aspirate, can provide tissue for next generation sequencing (NGS) and mutation detection, this requires an invasive often painful procedure for the patient. In many cases, especially in more advanced disease when multiple metastases are present, such tissue cannot be obtained or can only be obtained from a single tumor site, thus limiting the sensitivity of tissue-based biopsy. Here we report on a prospective cohort of 102 consecutively enrolled patients with advanced non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) for whom a non-invasive liquid biopsy was used for real-time detection of therapeutically targetable mutations. Tissue samples were only obtainable for 50 of the 102 patients, and these tissue biopsies were analyzed using a 47-gene Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) panel at Penn's Center for Personalized Diagnostics. Concordance of results for the 50 patients who received both tests was close to 100% when the samples were obtained concurrently. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Genetic Research, Leukemia, Personalized Medicine / 05.08.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Laura Eadie PhD Post Doctoral Researcher Affiliate Lecturer Discipline of Medicine University of Adelaide Summary: Researchers based at SAHMRI (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute) in Adelaide, South Australia have recently demonstrated the significance of early increases in the expression of ABCB1 in predicting long-term response to imatinib therapy. Lead researcher, Dr Laura Eadie, has recently had these findings published in the journal Leukemia and says that she hopes “the evidence provided by the study could be used to inform better patient treatment in the future”. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: ABCB1 (p-glycoprotein) is a membrane transporter known to be involved in the efflux of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that are used to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). Overexpression of ABCB1 has also been demonstrated to cause resistance to the TKIs imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib in vitro. Although studied previously in CML patients, the predictive value of ABCB1 in determining a patient’s long-term response to imatinib had not been realized ... until now. Previous studies investigating ABCB1 as a predictive biomarker focused on expression levels of ABCB1 at one time point in isolation. For our study, we have measured the levels of ABCB1 at two separate time points specified in the TIDEL II trial protocol: day 1 (prior to the start of imatinib therapy) and day 22 (three weeks on imatinib). We then calculated the fold rise in ABCB1 expression levels at day 22 compared with day 1 and grouped patients about the median into high and low fold rise. When we compared molecular outcomes for patients within these two ABCB1 expression groups we noticed a striking difference in outcome to imatinib therapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Heart Disease, JAMA, Personalized Medicine, UCSF / 21.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Peter Ganz, MD Chief, Division of Cardiology Director, Center of Excellence in Vascular Research Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Maurice Eliaser Distinguished Professor of Medicine University of California, San Francisco MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Ganz:  The research described in the JAMA paper involved measuring 1,130 different proteins in nearly 2000 individuals with apparently stable coronary heart disease, who were followed up to 11 years. Initially, two hundred different proteins were identified whose blood levels could be related to the risk of heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and death, and ultimately a combination of nine proteins was selected for a risk prediction model, based on their combined accuracy and sensitivity. Application of these findings to samples of patients with stable coronary heart disease demonstrated that some of those who were deemed clinically stable instead had a high risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, while other patients with the same clinical diagnosis had a very low risk. Thus, individuals who all carried the same clinical diagnosis of stable coronary heart disease had a risk of an adverse cardiovascular event that varied by as much as 10-fold, as revealed by analysis of the levels of the nine proteins in their blood. Given such large differences in risk and outcomes, patients could reasonably opt to be treated differently, depending on their level of risk. We hope that in the future, management of patients with stable angina will at least in part rely on risk assessment based on levels of blood proteins. (more…)
ASCO, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Personalized Medicine, UCSD / 07.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maria Schwaederle PharmD Clinical Research Scientist Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy UCSD Moores Cancer Center La Jolla, CA 92093 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Schwaederle: We performed this analysis with experts in the field, including but not limited to Drs Schilsky, Lee, Mendelsohn and Kurzrock, all known for their experience in the area of precision/personalized medicine. Historically, phase I trials (which are often first in human or highly experimental in other ways) were believed to be examining only toxicity. Our meta-analysis of 13,203 patients shows that in the era of precision medicine, this historical belief needs to be discarded. Second, it is the use of precision medicine that makes this belief outdated. Indeed, Phase I trials that utilized a biomarker-driven approach that is the essence of precision medicine had a median response rate of about 31%, which is higher than many FDA approved drugs, and this is in spite of the fact that phase I patients are a highly refractory group having failed multiple lines of conventional therapy. Importantly, however, it was not the use of targeted agents alone that was important. It was the biomarker-based approach where patients are matched to drugs. Without matching, response rates were dismal—about 5%. (more…)